Colorado Secretary of State Bars Overseas Soldiers from Voting

From Daily Kos:

In a very determined effort by Colorado's Republican Secretary of State, Scott Gessler, to make sure as few people as possible actually get to vote in Colorado, U.S. troops serving overseas won't get to vote.

Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz will comply with Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s order not to send ballots to soldiers out of state who are legally registered Pueblo County voters but who failed to cast ballots in 2010. The news came Friday afternoon in a carefully worded release that came after hours of deliberation.

“Pueblo County will honor Secretary Gessler’s order but this is not over,” Ortiz is quoted to say. “Pueblo County is currently weighing [its] legal options, including taking the issue to court. The Secretary of State effectively has denied 64 active military personnel the opportunity to vote.”

Gessler unveiled a new interpretation of state election law last week, when he filed a lawsuit to stop Denver County from mailing ballots to “inactive” voters as it had done for the last five years. An inactive voter in Colorado is a voter who is legally registered but who has failed to cast a vote in the previous general election—in this case the election of 2010.[...]

Gessler made a career as a lawyer of defending Republican clients and causes in election and campaign finance cases. He has been a controversial secretary of state since winning office in the “GOP wave election” of 2010. He has said that, in directing majority Democratic Denver and Pueblo county not to mail ballots to inactive voters, he is seeking to guard against fraud and make the state’s election rules uniform.

What a shock that Gessler would target Democratic-voting counties for voter "fraud." He issuing the clerk of Denver county to try to stop the mailing of ballots to all registered voters. And, for now, he has succeeded in disenfranchising Colorado soldiers. Apparently, the era of Republicans supporting the troops is over.

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ORIGINALLY POSTED TO JOAN MCCARTER ON MON OCT 03, 2011 AT 11:09 AM PDT.

ALSO REPUBLISHED BY MILITARY COMMUNITY MEMBERS OF DAILY KOS AND DAILY KOS.

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Breaking News from The Denver Post. 10/7/2011 - 4:30 CT

A Refreshing Campaign Ad

If I still lived in Colorado, I would vote for this man based on this short ad alone:



John Hickenlooper is the very astute and forward thinking Democratic mayor of Denver. He is running for governor of Colorado against the Republican Neanderthal Dan Maes, a regular do-nothing know-nothing kind of guy.

Readers here were first introduced to the mindless wonderfulness of Maes when he warned "voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are 'converting Denver into a United Nations community.'"

Amazingly Maes actually won the Republican primary. Seems his opponent, Scott McInnis and the much favored  candidate, took a nose dive when it was discovered that he plagiarized an article he called "Musings on Water."

Since Maes has a few campaign finance oopsies, Hickenlooper could probably dance down the hall of the  Denver City and County Building in boxer shorts singing - Singing In the Rain - and still win.

t/h to Mediate

Colorado Tea Party Candidate for Governor Full of Manure

Sometimes it's hard not to call a jackass a jackass when they are a jackass. Dan Maes, a Republican and Tea Party favorite for Colorado governor, has his stuck up higher than Mt. Evans which at 14,000 feet is the highest peak in the state.

Maes is running against John Hickenlooper, current Democratic mayor of Denver since 2003 and active civic leader since he owned the old Wynkoop Brewing Company microbrewery. As mayor, Hickenlooper helped start the first bike-sharing program in the country. "Comparable to Paris, Amsterdam, and Montreal, you can pick up a shiny new red 3-speed Trek bike at any of the 40 stations around town and drop them off at another station." There are already 14,000 memberships.

Sounds like a pretty smart way to cut down on traffic, air and noise pollution, and to contribute to healthy living, don't you think? Well, not according to Muck for Brains.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are "converting Denver into a United Nations community."

"This is all very well-disguised, but it will be exposed," Maes told about 50 supporters who showed up at a campaign rally last week in Centennial.

Maes said in a later interview that he once thought the mayor's efforts to promote cycling and other environmental initiatives were harmless and well-meaning. Now he realizes "that's exactly the attitude they want you to have."

"This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms," Maes said.

"These aren't just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to."

Maes said in a later interview that he was referring to Denver's membership in the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an international association that promotes sustainable development and has attracted the membership of more than 1,200 communities, 600 of which are in the United States.

So, when is a jackass not a jackass?

t/h Think Progress