DENVER — A Boulder County judge dismissed a complaint late Monday over vote-counting brought by Colorado Republicans, but they’re still alarmed over what they see as the clerk’s efforts to undermine election integrity in the Democratic stronghold.
Republicans allege that Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall has refused to allow poll watchers to observe the entire signature-verification process and that her staffers are processing ballots too quickly to check signatures accurately on the mail-in ballots.
Even so, Boulder District Court Judge Patrick Butler dismissed the lawsuit, saying Ms. Hall had not been served and that no irreparable harm had been done, although Republicans dispute this.
The squabble comes with Colorado in the throes of hard-fought Senate and gubernatorial races, the first such contests to be conducted under the state’s new all-mail elections law. Republicans staunchly opposed the bill, which was approved in 2013 by the Democrat-controlled state legislature with no GOP votes.
Ms. Hall told the Longmont Times-Call that she was attempting to protect the confidentiality of voters and blamed the complaint on Republican efforts to tar the new elections law, which also ushers in same-day voter registration.
“This is partisan politics, people who don’t like mail ballots trying to discredit them,” Ms. Hall told Fox31 Denver. “The law provides that election judges verify voter signatures, not poll watchers. If they want the right to verify signatures, they should go ask the state legislature.”
The Republican lawsuit alleged that Ms. Hall had prevented poll-watchers from gaining “access to the necessary information to determine whether mail signatures that have already been called into question are in fact valid signatures.”
Marilyn Marks, who heads the Aspen-based election integrity group Citizen Center, said she was stunned by how quickly the Boulder clerk’s office is verifying ballot signatures, saying that they’re only spending a few seconds per ballot.
“They are approving ballots at a machine-gun fire rate, less than two seconds on each ballot,” Ms. Marks said. “They’re not being careful.”
Democrats have lagged behind Republicans in returning their mail-in ballots. Figures released Tuesday by the Colorado Secretary of State show Republicans have turned in 39.5 percent of the 1.6 million ballots cast, while Democrats have submitted 32.3 percent and unaffiliated voters 26.9 percent.
Colorado Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call said in a statement Monday that there would not be enough time for the party to file an appeal before Tuesday’s election.
“We are profoundly disappointed that we are being denied our day in court, and even more disappointed with clerk Hall’s ongoing refusal to allow Republican watchers meaningful access to observe signature verification and monitor the receipt and processing of military and overseas ballots,” Mr. Call said.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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