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Tag: Colorado Secretary Of State

Former GOP Congressman Greg Lopez Secures Spot on Colorado Governor Ballot as Independent
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Former GOP Congressman Greg Lopez Secures Spot on Colorado Governor Ballot as Independent

By: Ernest Luning | Colorado Politics Unaffiliated gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez, a former Republican congressman from Elizabeth who left the GOP to run as an independent, has qualified for the ballot by submitting enough petition signatures, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said Tuesday. He’ll face Democratic nominee Phil Weiser, the state’s two-term attorney general, and Republican Victor Marx, a first-time candidate who runs a Christian ministry in Colorado Springs, as well as several candidates who belong to minor political parties. Lopez and his pick for lieutenant governor, Taralyn Romero, a Jefferson County property rights activist and health care worker, needed to turn in 1,000 valid signatures from registered voters in each of the state’s eight co...
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Colorado Election Officials Allege Victor Marx Campaign Repeatedly Exceeded Donation Limits
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CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Election Officials Allege Victor Marx Campaign Repeatedly Exceeded Donation Limits

By Shaun Boyd | CBS Colorado The Colorado Secretary of State's Office says the Republican gubernatorial nominee Victor Marx's campaign received nearly 200 illegal campaign contributions during the primary election. Campaign finance law caps individual donations at $1,450 to reduce the outsized influence of wealthy donors and prevent quid pro quo corruption. Colorado Secretary of State The Election Division received complaints alleging the Marx Campaign had repeatedly violated the law. It launched an investigation and found the campaign accepted 197 illegal contributions totaling more than $78,000 over the limit. It says he also accepted another $1,000 in illegal cash donations. Darcy Schoening filed the complaints against the campaign. She says Marx m...
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Independent Candidate Enters High-Profile Congressional Race Against Socialist Melat Kiros
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

Independent Candidate Enters High-Profile Congressional Race Against Socialist Melat Kiros

By Ernest Luning and Mark Samuelson | The Denver Gazette      Unaffiliated congressional candidate Shimon Blau, a Denver doctor, has qualified by petition for the general election in Colorado’s 1st District, where Democrat Melat Kiros defeated 15-term U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette in last month’s primary, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said Friday. Blau, a newcomer to politics, submitted just shy of 2,000 valid signatures on July 8 days after starting his petition drive in response to Kiros’s upset primary win over DeGette. Election officials said 1,918 of the 2,212 signatures gathered by Blau were accepted, easily clearing the 1,500 signature requirement. Shimon Blau, who qualified to run for the 1st Congressional Distri...
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El Paso County sought election-security funds while the state sued over the conditions
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

El Paso County sought election-security funds while the state sued over the conditions

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice While Colorado was preparing to challenge new federal election-security requirements in court, the election office in the state’s most populous county was moving ahead with plans to strengthen its own election security under the same grant program. Six days before Attorney General Phil Weiser sued the Trump administration over election conditions attached to Homeland Security Grant Program funding, El Paso County Clerk Steve Schleiker submitted a $79,850 proposal seeking federal money for an independent review of his office's election security. The proposal isn't for new voting equipment. It would hire an outside firm to examine the county's election operation through cybersecurity testing, penetration testing, physical-security assessmen...
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Colorado sues over Trump election rules tied to homeland security grants
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado sues over Trump election rules tied to homeland security grants

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado joined 24 other states and the District of Columbia on Thursday in suing the Trump administration over new rules that withhold a fifth of the state's counterterrorism grant money unless Colorado shows it meets five federal election requirements. One of the five requirements asks Colorado to plan a change state rules already require. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, where judges ruled against DHS in two similar grant disputes last year. One of those decisions is on appeal.  Colorado sued DHS, FEMA, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Robert J. Fenton, the senior official performing the duties of FEMA administrator. "We're suing again, and we'll win again, because the administrat...
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Colorado’s dirty voter roll: Final observations
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s dirty voter roll: Final observations

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice  After six installments examining Colorado's voter registration system, Mike O'Donnell closes his series with additional observations from his review of the public voter roll and his final thoughts on what he believes should change to strengthen election integrity in Colorado. Errata By wandering through the public Colorado voter roll and grouping registrants by addresses OR by accessing the powerful (and free) ELLY program to identify potential anomalies, there are plenty of things that need to be fixed or cleaned up on Colorado’s voter roll.  And although the Secretary of State makes it more than challenging than it needs to be to clean up the voter roll, it doesn’t hurt to ask questions of county clerks or pu...
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Colorado’s primary audit is underway. Here’s what it checks—and what it doesn’t
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s primary audit is underway. Here’s what it checks—and what it doesn’t

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Before Colorado's June 30 primary results become official, counties across Colorado must complete one of the final steps required by state election law: a post-election risk-limiting audit. Mesa County completed its audit Tuesday. "Mesa pulled 115 with zero discrepancies," Mesa County Clerk Bobbie Gross told RMV. The audit compares randomly selected paper ballot cards with how the voting system recorded the votes on them. It does not review every part of the election. What the audit checks Colorado law requires a risk-limiting audit after every primary, general, coordinated, recall and congressional vacancy election. State law describes it as a statistical audit intended to reduce the risk of certifying an incorrect election outc...
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Colorado’s dirty voter roll: The curious case of Apartment A503
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s dirty voter roll: The curious case of Apartment A503

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Questions about who belongs on Colorado's voter rolls extend beyond duplicate registrations. In Part 6, Mike O'Donnell examines how citizenship verification works, why he believes outside review is limited and how one Aurora apartment address became the most unusual pattern he encountered while reviewing Colorado's public voter roll. Noncitizen Registrants The very first question on the Colorado Voter Registration Form asks whether an application is a U.S. citizen or not. The answer to this first question is required, although if someone “forgets” to answer it, then because they also sign the declaration at the bottom of page 1, they are nonetheless presumed to be a U.S. citizen. An AI...
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Colorado’s dirty voter roll: When one registration becomes two
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s dirty voter roll: When one registration becomes two

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice A voter registration is intended to identify one eligible voter. In Part 5, Mike O'Donnell shares examples he flagged during a manual review of more than 412,000 Colorado voter records that he says appear to show duplicate registrations created by small differences in names and other identifying information. Duplicated Voter Registrations The vast number of new registrants added to the Colorado voter roll each year are added automatically. The Department of Revenue is required to electronically report information on “each unregistered elector or person eligible to preregister who applies for the issuance, renewal, or correction of a Colorado driver's license or identification card and who provides documentation of ...
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Colorado immediately assessed Trump’s election order. USPS defended its proposal. A court blocked key parts.
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado immediately assessed Trump’s election order. USPS defended its proposal. A court blocked key parts.

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado election officials said they diverted staff to evaluate President Trump's executive order while 2026 preparations were already underway. USPS said the proposal formalizes election-mail practices it has recommended for years. The dispute has now moved to the appeals courts. Colorado election officials told a federal court they began evaluating changes to the state's election systems almost immediately after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to overhaul parts of federal election administration.  In sworn filings, they said the order required them to divert staff time to analyze how new federal citizenship verification and ballot-mail procedures would interact with the state's syste...
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