TUESDAY UPDATE #2: FOX 31’s Eli Stokols:
Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler and his staff dismissed speculation from Democratic groups that technical problems Monday on the state’s voter registration website were intentional…
“There were some intermittent issues, but we got to it as quickly as we could,” said Rich Coolidge, Gessler’s spokesman. “We monitor it really closesly, especially on a day ilke yesterday. It was the heavy volume on the site that caused any slowing issues.”
Some Democrats, however, aren’t giving Gessler the benefit of the doubt in light of what they call his “war on voting”, a looming legal battle over whether inactive voters should receive mail ballots.
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TUESDAY UPDATE: No official word yet on how widespread this problem may have been — and how many people were possibly affected.
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We have received multiple, and by that we mean a substantial number, of reports of intermittent technical problems at the official voter registration website for the state of Colorado, GoVoteColorado.com–as well as at least one confirmed error of our own (above). There seems to be trouble off and on with loading any of the new registration or update functions on the site, as well as filled-out form pages suddenly returning an error message like the one above. As you know, today is the deadline to register to vote for this year’s statewide election. It’s worth noting that we received our first report of a problem accessing the website last Thursday.
We’re certainly not making any accusations; it’s important to head that off given that this website is administered by the office of Secretary of State Scott Gessler. Who is, somebody is going to say it if we don’t, more or less continuously mired in, well, scandal. The mind goes where it will.
But presuming good faith, we know that Mr. Gessler will make finding out what the hell is wrong with the voter registration website on the last day to register his very top priority.
Is it fair to say that it’s not only vote suppression but also blatant disenfranchisement?
I’m still waiting for a few Republicans to speak up — the ones who couldn’t get their voter registration updated online today. Oh, wait — maybe they got last week’s GO(T)P memo telling them to get it done by the end of September. (Okay, I’m just speculating — but it makes you wonder . . .)
And update our registration when we move, not just before it’s time to vote? Maybe you should think about the responsibilities involved with wanting to vote.
Or you could just keep up with the conspiracy theories.
They probably don’t pay their cable bill until it gets shut off either.
Responsibility, liberals. Commence two minute’s hate!
The concept of “you can register through today” is not that registration is until some arbitrary number of days earlier – it’s that it’s through today. For someone who’s usually a proponent of strict law and order you’re awfully cavalier about this date surreptitiously being moved up a week or so.
they’d still have that right. The deadline is today, not yesterday, not last week, not last month, not last year.
to its own due dates? I pulled myself up by my own shoelaces, which were very nice thanks to my privileged upbringing, and which were sufficiently strong thanks to standards.
Liberals clearly rely on handouts and the government for everything! Like getting ballots and meaning that October 4 is October 4 and such. Silly liberals.
But that doesn’t change the fact that they are still supposed to be able to register or change an address today. If it doesn’t work, it’s not an excuse to say, “Well, you should have tried it last week.” And as we noted above, it wasn’t working last week, either.
Another apparent hallmark of the conservative mind – it’s always YOUR fault, even if you play by the rules.
is the mark of a liberal.
Just look at President Obama as an example.
You got five minutes to name a SPECIFIC instance of this happening.
How about taking that unsubstantiated claim back now?
All problems are the Republicans/ Bush’s fault. I’m on the road right now,so digging up the actual speeches is a little tough. But love the five minute deadline, makes the site more like a game show and less like a bad comedy.
You’re free to change the channel anytime you want.
Do you remember all the times Republicans blamed 9/11 on Clinton? Or the economic collapse on Carter?
I would like to see a specific instance where Obama did this – but please not that it can’t be over specific criticisms of how the ‘pubs conducted themselves during negotiations with him. It has to be what you say – that “all the problems are Bush’s/GOP’s fault.” (Also, it’s gotta be something patently and demonstrably false or misleading, such as blaming 9/11 on Clinton was.)
If someone is reliant only on the Internet to register to vote and they waited until the last possible minute to register and now that are unable to register because of access problems. Sorry, but too bad.
There are way too may days of availability before the deadline to get this taken care of.
No way one can realistically consider this disenfranchisement except for a disenfranchisement of their own ability to get off of their butts and get registered.
The law doesn’t agree with you. Why do you hate it so?
If Scott Gessler is telling everyone to go to govotecolorado.com by Oct. 3, he’s really messing with them. They should know he’s leading them astray. Thanks for clearing that up.
There is more than one method of registering to vote. If one don’t work, go to the next one.
Or is it just better to throw one’s hands up and claim disenfranchisement!!!!
There are so many different ways to register in this state. Relying on only one method is not a wise decision.
to update your voter status if the state’s website is down?
Find a sitter, figure out where your county clerk’s office is, figure out what bus to take to get there, and take a big chunk out of your day to go do it, especially after the Colorado Secretary of State has been all over the news telling you how easy it is to update on the website on Oct. 3?
You’re saying that relying on the accuracy of what Scott Gessler told everyone isn’t a wise decision? Well, can’t argue with that.
…to expect only one method to be available 24/7/365 is not something I do. I like the fact that the Internet is an option. But, I can’t rely on that being my only method.
There are other methods to register or change my registration. It is up to me to get that taken care of. I cannot expect one method to be my only option.
Sorry if you see it different.
…like me you did change your voter reg address on paper, several weeks ago, but you went to govotecolorado.com and found that your address had not been changed? And if from there you went to change your address on said website, but in the middle of that attempt said website died on you? I ask because I’m describing precisely what happened to me.
Maybe its my own fault for only trying to properly register to vote via two different methods.
I’d make a deus ex machina joke, but that would make Gessler deus. Eep!
Who should I contact if I have more questions?
Contact your county clerk and recorder. You may find a list with contact information at http://www.elections.colorado.gov.
You may also contact the Secretary of State’s office
Phone: 303-894-2200 ext. 6307
Fax: 303-869-4861 Email: State.ElectionDivision@sos.state.co.us
So it seems to me that another method, two actually, available to you are right here.
Call or email them.
Once again, not just the Internet is available to you, or anyone else for that matter, to get something taken care of here.
And maybe it is intentional. But keep in mind that the state of Colorado has failed at running just about every computer system in their control, from CBMS to drivers licenses to …
The SoS’s office has had a continual problem with lack of servers. It is easy to imagine that all of those people who waited to the last minute to changes their addresses, etc. may have bogged down the system.
Of course the deadline was not heavily advertised until we were right on top of it either.
who needs servers ?
This is negligence on Gessler’s part (there are load-balancing measures you can take in advance when you know your servers are about to take a serious hit) but I doubt it’s malice or dishonesty, despite his record. He hasn’t gone out of his way to enfranchise last minute registrants, but I don’t think he’s taken steps to encourage these errors, either.
This has been an issue at the SoS’s office at least back to Coffman, maybe further.
Thanks. Let’s move on to reality now.