April 08, 2014 03:27 PM UTC

Colorado Supremes slap down Gessler

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• by: Half Glass Full

Today the Colorado Supreme Court held that Secretary of State Scott Gessler usurped legal authority when he passed an "emergency" rule that purported to allow unelected officials to simply ignore duly cast ballots for a school district director merely because they felt the director was not "qualified for office."

The court quite rightly held that Gessler was usurping the authority of the courts in allowing election officials to make such fundamental decisions.

If the court had ruled the other way, it would be like allowing those 2012 attempts in Arizona and elsewhere by local "birther" election officials to keep Barack Obama off the ballot.

The case is Hanlen v. Gessler, 13 SA 306:

http://www.cobar.org/opinions/opinion.cfm?opinionid=9312&courtid=2