The poll-watching Tea Party group known as True the Vote opens another national summit today, with top elections officials from two states among the listed speakers. Announced by email yesterday from True the Vote, one of them is the Republican Secretary of State from Kansas, Kris Kobach, last seen considering taking Barack Obama off the ballot in this state. The other is the Republican Secretary of State from Colorado, Scott Gessler, last seen trying to purge voters from the rolls two weeks before the November election.
Back home in Colorado, Gessler has sounded a little frustrated lately. Colorado's legislature has flipped from Republican to Democratic control, and the new majority wants to make voting easier. Colorado's county clerks, while not unanimously in favor of the changes, generally like them. From the Cortez Journal:
La Plata County Clerk Tiffany Lee Parker, a Republican, supports the bill and says it’s not a partisan issue."To me, this is really bipartisan. This makes sense. This is not Republican versus Democrat," Parker said.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Gessler is having a fit over the changes. He says the Democrats are "crazy" and guilty of "piss-poor thinking." And he says they're "trying to change the rules of the game in a very one-sided direction." That might be because making it harder to vote has generally helped Republicans, and making it easier has generally helped Democrats.
Democrats want to encourage mail-in voting by sending every voter a ballot, and they want to allow for same-day registration. The legislation, House Bill 1303 (pdf), comes up for its first hearing on Monday.