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

Portraits Without Faces

(CNN) -- A soldier and his shadow sit alone on wrinkled sheets. With his knees pressed tightly up against his chest, he wraps his arms around his legs and bows his head.

In another photo, a soldier stands before a mirror. His raised hand covers just enough of his reflection to protect his anonymity.

But it's not photographer Jeff Sheng from whom these men are hiding their identities.

It's the military.

Sheng's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" exhibit, two years in the making, conveys the stories of the gay and bisexual men and women who serve in the U.S. military. And because his subjects are forced to keep their sexual orientations under wraps in order to serve, Shen's photos are portraits without faces.

The Los Angeles, California-based artist said many of his subjects were grateful for the opportunity to make a statement "without fully revealing themselves and losing their jobs."

"If this person got outed, they would lose their pension, their retirement benefits -- their 20 years of service in the military would be gone," he said.

Sheng asked many of those he photographed why they continue to serve despite the inequality.

"I asked, 'Why do you still serve with this policy in place? Why would you do it?' " Sheng said. "And they all looked at me and said, 'Because it's serving the country. It's the most honorable thing that I can think of doing right now in my life.' "