Cover Stories

Dear Neighbor,

Do you like mail ballots? And do you care whether every citizen gets to exercise their right to vote?

If you answered yes to either of those questions, Adams County Clerk Karen Long needs to hear from you right now. Here's the deal:

House Speaker Terrance Carroll has announced he'll introduce a bill that will expand access to mail ballots and expand our state's existing safety net of late voter registration. This bill just makes common sense. Expanding access to mail ballots will lower the cost of elections as County Clerks statewide are seeing budgets cut (note that the bill would still require polling locations in every county and would not replace voting in person). And expanding our state's current law permitting late registration would be another step toward ensuring that every citizen of our state who wants to vote has every opportunity to do that - no citizen should be denied their vote, for example, because of an administrative error.

County Clerks like Adams County's Karen Long may have a lot of influence on the legislature regarding this bill. Will you take a moment to call Karen Long and encourage her to support this bill? Here are some important points to remember about the Speaker's proposal:

1. Mail ballots will be sent to nearly every registered voter, except people for whom the state doesn't have a good address.
2. Any voter can still choose to vote in person instead of by mail if that's how they prefer to vote.
3. The state's existing law permitting late emergency registration that has worked well for years would be expanded to allow any citizen to register and vote up to the Friday before Election Day beginning this year and through Election Day beginning in 2012.

Call Adams County Clerk Karen Long at 303-920-7850. Be courteous and respectful.

To also like to sign a petition supporting this proposed reform, please click on the link below:
http://www.ProgressNowColorado.org/EveryVoteCounts

Thank you!
Bobby Clark