Voting reforms set to be proposed

A group impaneled by the state secretary of state will suggest such changes as paper trails for e-voting.

By Mark P. Couch
Denver Post Staff Writer    24 March 2005

A blue-ribbon panel convened by the state's top elections official plans to call for a series of reforms in the voting process today.

Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, said the group will propose that all new electronic voting machines purchased after 2006 be required to have a paper trail.

By 2010, counties will need to retrofit existing electronic machines to provide a paper trail.

Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, said the panel will also recommend that citizens get a receipt when they sign up at voter-registration drives.

That move is intended to protect voters from fraudulent efforts to register voters. If they present the receipt at the poll, they will be able to vote even if their names do not show up on voter rolls.

White and Tupa were two of the 14 members of the commission.

In addition, the commission will recommend that student and Indian-tribe identification cards be allowed for voters to register and cast provisional ballots.

Those proposals are some of the recommendations expected from a commission appointed by Secretary of State Donetta Davidson.

Davidson appointed the panel - composed of Republicans and Democrats - after several problems surfaced in last year's election.

Several of the proposals are similar to a bill sponsored by Sens. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, and Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, considered this week.