Sunday,

J anuary 1 8, 2 015 at 1 1:03:01 A M M ountain Standard Time

Subject: Le#er to Chie+ain re: irregulari2es in Jan 2015 recall elec2on

Date: Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 11:02:34 AM Mountain Standard Time
From:

Marilyn Marks

From: Marilyn Marks

Date: Thursday, January 8, 2015 at 4:52 PM
To: "shenson@chie+ain.com" <shenson@chie+ain.com>
Cc: "proper@chie+ain.com" <proper@chie+ain.com>
Subject: Pueblo Recall elec2on is set to be unfair, unlawful and non-transparent
Steve,
When the Chieftain first broke the stories of the non-transparent dealings of the City Council I followed
the story for a while, and was glad to see the recall effort emerge. I lost track in the past few weeks and
had not followed the details of Ortiz being engaged to run the recall election. After getting calls from
some voters today about the unilateral decision the City made (contrary to the Code) to send ballots to
inactive voters, I started reviewing the IGA and the election codes involved. In short, this is an election
disaster in the making! Laws, rules, regulations and procedures are being just completely made up in
banana republic style. The city voters should not expect a fair and verifiable election!
First, the City has no legal authority to run the election as a mail ballot election. It does not fit within the
types of elections where a mail ballot election is permitted. Even if it did, there are violations of the
Colorado Constitution inherent in the scheme set up. Under the constitution, candidates must be given
until 15 days before election day to turn in a nomination petition. The court has ruled as recently as 2013
on that matter and found shorter statutory deadlines to be unconstitutional. Last years SB-158 did not
repair the issue. The Constitution still trumps statute.
Mail ballot elections are not available for recalls in Pueblo, because of the Charter and the state
Constitution. The election must be run as a polling place election under the Pueblo Code.
Additionally the IGA calls for Title 1 to govern the election. There are at least two all mail ballot
schemes and two polling place schemes in Title 1. Essentially invoking the general term title 1 allows
Ortiz to pick and choose what he wants to use on any particular daynever minding the fact that the
Pueblo Election Code does not allow any Title 1 election code to apply.
Looking beyond the legal mess, the clause in the IGA that prohibits the public from inspecting the voting
equipment says it all. First, the pre-election machine testing is a public function by state law. Additionally,
during the 2013 recall election and the November 2014 election, numerous material voting equipment
problems were exposed and were never resolved. It seems that the City and County have solved that
problem by putting any verification of the machines off limits to the public.
Note that the City is going to decide AFTER the initial results are in whether they want to count the late
registrants ballots.(Those registering within 29 days of the election. )
The IGA is a mess, so one can imagine what the other unwritten procedures are like!
This Chieftain should not lend its credibility to this election.
The November election was a disgrace to the state and to Pueblo. It is a shame that citizens were not
allowed to get to the bottom of the problems and the election was certified only under duress and threats
against the canvass board members.
I hate to see an even worse one in the works.

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Marilyn Marks

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