Hi folks. This is Jenny, Associate Director of Colorado Common Cause. Wanted to come on here and follow up on Barb's great update on our election reform related efforts. Here in Colorado we are seeing a rush to a new voting concept, called Vote Centers. Vote Centers may hold the promise to provide greater convenience for highly mobile voters and will likely reduce costs for elections administrators? But at what cost? As counties and other states consider changing the way we run elections, lets remember that voting is the most tangible means for participation in democracy - While all of you bloggers are active and aware of what's happening - there are lots of citizens that are just emerging as active participants - Reforms must consider all voters: new and unlikely voters, elderly, disabled, homeless, new citizens all of us.

Here's a bit of background on Vote Centers:

Vote Centers, are sweeping across the state of Colorado with several counties moving away from polling place voting to central voting centers. Vote Centers also known as super precincts -replaces neighborhood polling places by creating consolidated centers where voters can vote at any designated center within their county. Counties trim down the number of precincts and keep voter records electronically to ensure eligible voters only cast one ballot.

Larimer County, Colorado was the first and only county in country to run this type of election. Some of the benefits include improved customer service; convenience for voters, they can go anywhere in the county, and lower costs to counties. Costs may be high in the initial years, setting up technology and new equipment, but over time the costs are low. For example Denver County would go from 290 polling places to 35-45 Vote Center locations. This means fewer voting machines and fewer election judges. Another benefit is that fewer judges can receive more specialized training.

At Common Cause we believe these benefits are important but caution that there may be some negative impacts as well. Some of our concerns include selecting where these centers are located, loss of the neighborhood feel of elections, that the centers would create more confusion, and the need for public outreach regarding the shift from local polling places to vote centers.

We encourage you to contact your local officials and get involved with the site selection and voter outreach. Denver recently created a stakeholders task force of community groups and interested parties to assist in the decision making process of site locations.

So is this a good idea? Will it serve to increase voter turnout? What will be the impact on low mobility communities such as elderly, low income and disabled?

Counties in Colorado that are moving toward, or are considering vote centers include: Mesa, Delta, Weld, Adams and Denver.  Colorado Springs recently considered the idea.  Also, crossposted this lost on Colorado's ProgressNow.org's blog.