Denver has been beset with extremely long lines at the vast majority of the "Vote Centers" throughout the city.  Wait times have been up to an hour and a half long and voters have been seen leaving many of the polling locations without voting.  

Common Cause is a leading partner in FairVote Colorado.  I am the Executive Director of Colorado Common Cause, and together with attorneys for FairVote and other parties, am on my way to the Denver district court right now to file for an injunction to extend the voting hours in Denver.  The polls are scheduled to close at 7pm, and we will be asking for the hours to be extended to at least 8pm and hopefully later to ensure that everyone who has attempted to vote today is able to.

The Colorado Legislature has been called into special session.  And after two days, it is clear that this session is about partisan fighting and political posturing, not real debates about real issues.  To make matters worse, there are measures under consideration that would threaten the rights of Colorado voters and make it harder to cast a ballot.  Colorado Governor Bill Owens is urging the legislature to require proof of citizenship in order to register and vote.

Similar bills were defeated during Colorado's regular legislative session earlier this year. Yesterday, Common Cause, joined by the ACLU and other organizations, testified in opposition to a bill that would have required proof of citizenship to register and vote, and other onerous ID requirements for voting.

Attempts to add oppressive ID provisions only serve to intimidate and deter voters from participating in democracy. Forms of ID such as a birth certificate or passport cannot be obtained without some fee from $20 - $90.  In some cases, where records have been lost -- as many have been recently in New Orleans -- they are not easily obtained. In fact, these requirements end up having the effect of a poll tax.

Electionline yesterday reported on a new study claiming increased turnout for Vote Centers.

I wrote earlier that Vote Centers may have benefits, but election administrators should use caution before making the shift.

The electionline article notes that Vote centers have been compared to shopping at Home Depot rather than a local hardware store.Another study shows that the number one predictor of whether someone will vote is how close the polling place is to their home (see "Location, Location, Location: Precinct Placement and the Costs of Voting," Journal of Politics #67, 2005, Moshe Haspel of Spelman College in Atlanta and H. Gibbs Knotts of Western Carolina University).

We are still learning about vote centers and their `promise' of reduced costs and potentially increased turnout. Lets be careful not to place cost savings above voter participation.

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.