On December 17, the Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman decided that the majority of voting machines used by the counties of Colorado were unreliable and not secure. What Coffman’s office termed “decertification” of the voting machines may have a profound effect on election law nationwide. Electronic voting machines have been criticized since their inception for their vulnerability to hacking and their lack of a paper record of voting. Some manufacturers, like Diebold (now Premier Election Systems, whose machines were the only ones passed by the Secretary of State’s office), were criticized because of their heavy involvement with one or the other political party in swing states where exit polls and election returns were markedly inconsistent. Despite all criticisms, however, electronic voting machines have become the standard method for conducting elections.
The state’s new rules follow a federal judge’s decision that the state’s old methods of testing were inadequate. Now county officials and vendors have 30 days to hire a governmental affairs lawyer and mount a challenge to the ruling, or else the decertification will likely stand for primary elections in the coming year, meaning that some counties, including Denver, could be forced to conduct an all-paper poll. If your political organization has a stake in this or any other issue connected to the running of elections in Colorado, the Denver political attorneys at Zakhem | Atherton, LLC are prepared to give strategic counsel.
