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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 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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Federal Appeals Court Rejects Anonymous Lawsuit Against Colorado Judicial Branch
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Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Federal Appeals Court Rejects Anonymous Lawsuit Against Colorado Judicial Branch

By: Michael Karlik | Colorado Politics The Denver-based federal appeals court concluded last month that a former attorney cannot mask her identity while suing the Colorado Judicial Department for alleged improprieties in her disability and disbarment proceedings. “Jane Roe,” representing herself, sued the Judicial Department and attorney regulators in 2024. She accused the defendants of discrimination, defamation, and violations of her constitutional rights in the proceedings that culminated in her disbarment. Because Roe did not have an attorney, Colorado’s federal trial court routed her complaint through its screening process for self-represented litigants. U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard T. Gurley advised Roe that there need to be “exceptional” circumstances for plain...
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Cherry Creek Schools Spent $114K On Outside Counsel During Superintendent Scandal
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The Denver Gazette, Approved, Local

Cherry Creek Schools Spent $114K On Outside Counsel During Superintendent Scandal

By: Nicole C. Brambila | The Denver Gazette The Cherry Creek School District paid $114,000 to hire outside counsel to provide the Board of Education with legal advice as it navigated the allegations that were swirling around the former superintendent. Fisher Phillips invoices obtained through a Colorado Open Records Act request show the district paid $114,191.50 from March through June. Roughly a third of the cost — or $40,000 — was paid to Steve Welchert. Welchert is a Democratic political consultant who specializes in strategic planning, political lobbying and crisis management. Following the Jan. 27 executive session to discuss former Superintendent Chris Smith’s mid-year evaluation in which he abruptly resigned, the board hired Jane Waterman-Joyc...
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Cherry Creek School District Withholds Itemized Legal Invoices After $65K Investigation
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Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Cherry Creek School District Withholds Itemized Legal Invoices After $65K Investigation

By: Nico Brambila | Colorado Politics After previously refusing to disclose the cost associated with the investigation into the former superintendent and his wife, the former human resources chief, Cherry Creek School District officials partially released records showing the cost to taxpayers: $65,054.85. The Denver Gazette obtained “invoice cover sheets” through a June 12 Colorado Open Records Act request seeking — among other things — invoices, billing records or payment records related to the investigation. Caitlin Holzfaster, the district’s records custodian,denied a similar request on May 15, claiming that descriptions could reveal attorney-client privileged information, legal advice or litigation strategy. Abbe Smith, a district spokesperson...
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Weiser talks about his Trump lawsuits. Here’s what he doesn’t talk about.
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Weiser talks about his Trump lawsuits. Here’s what he doesn’t talk about.

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Phil Weiser likes to talk about his Trump suits, but only some things. The article (lament?) linked first below covers territory I know all too well, having trod it more than once. Our Attorney General loves to tout his fighting style, bragging about his Trump-lawsuit spree, but he doesn’t want to share all the details. As his office has done in the past, when you go looking for records, they throw up roadblocks and jack up the price to drive those pesky questions away. Some non-contiguous quotes from the article flesh this out: “Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed dozens of lawsuits against the federal government, priding himself on his ability to fight and win cases against the Trump Admi...
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Colorado Secretary of State now prosecutes Pueblo Democrats in bingo finance case it dismissed
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Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado Secretary of State now prosecutes Pueblo Democrats in bingo finance case it dismissed

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice The Colorado Secretary of State's office dismissed the complaint. Now, after a judge sent the case back, the state itself is the one prosecuting it. On June 15, the office's Elections Division filed its own complaint against the Pueblo County Democrat Party. The complaint alleges the Pueblo County Democrat Party failed to report contributions and expenditures tied to its affiliated Central Committee and its bingo-funded headquarters. 2026.06.15 - AHO Complaint_Pueblo County Democratic Party (1)Download The filing advances a case Pueblo resident Jonathan Ambler spent nearly two years building: that the party financed operations through an affiliated nonprofit and its bingo operation without reporting that activity in state campa...
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Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser Faces Scrutiny Over Access to Lawsuit Records
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser Faces Scrutiny Over Access to Lawsuit Records

By Adam Herbets | The Center Square (The Center Square) - Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has filed dozens of lawsuits against the federal government, priding himself on his ability to fight and win cases against the Trump Administration, but he has yet to answer questions about the costs of those lawsuits to taxpayers. His office publishes a partial list of cases but otherwise keeps the full list behind a $331 paywall. While the partial list highlights "the total amount of federal funds successfully defended" by Weiser's lawsuits, it doesn't tell taxpayers the cost of pursuing the lawsuits. It also doesn't show whether taxpayers paid outside firms to do any of the work. Unlike a number of neighboring states, Colorado state law does not requir...
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