Saturday, October 7, 2006

Register to vote you knuckleheads Tuesday, October 10th, is the last day to register for the November 7th election. Denver resident information here. Category: Denver November 2006 Election 1:19:58 PM

Ritter or Beauprez for governor? AP via the Washington Post: "Democrat Bill Ritter is leading Republican Rep. Bob Beauprez in the race for Colorado governor, according to a poll released Friday that also shows a large number of undecided voters. Ritter, a former Denver district attorney, leads Beauprez 43 percent to 33 percent, according to the statewide poll of 500 likely voters by Ciruli Associates. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. The poll found that 20 percent of respondents were undecided. There are about 170,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats in Colorado, but the poll showed Ritter with a 32-percentage-point lead over Beauprez among unaffiliated voters. Ritter also appeared to be doing a better job than Beauprez at attracting voters from the other party, the poll showed. According to the poll, Ritter leads Beauprez in every region of the state except on the eastern plains." Thanks to ToTheRight.org for the link. Category: Denver November 2006 Election 9:54:58 AM

Referendum I and Amendment 43 The Denver Post editorial staff is urging voters to approve Referendum I and reject Amendment 43. From the opinion piece, "Referendum I, called The Colorado Domestic Partnership Benefits and Responsibilities Act, would provide same-sex couples with basic legal rights. The measure does not allow same-sex couples to marry and would leave the existing state law limiting marriage to a man and a woman intact. But it would give gay and lesbian couples certain legal rights long enjoyed by heterosexuals, including the right to make medical decisions for incapacitated partners, access to health-care and family-leave benefits and protection of their inheritance rights. Extending such basic rights to non-traditional couples is long overdue. The world has changed a great deal from the days when all families were expected to conform to television's 'Ozzie and Harriet' image of a full-time male breadwinner and a full-time female homemaker placidly presiding over 2.3 children. As divorce and remarriage, single-parent families and same-sex relationships have changed the template of the American family, society and the law have struggled to adapt... "First, a constitutional amendment is unnecessary because state law already limits marriage to one man and one woman. Second, elevating the statutory ban on gay marriage to a constitutional provision would diminish the state's fundamental governing document. The Constitution should be a place to impose limits on government and enshrine individual rights. It should never be a vehicle for withholding rights." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 9:36:06 AM

Referendum F The Denver Post editorial staff is urging voters to approve Referendum F. They write, "In the midst of so many heart-racing ballot measures, Referendum F is a humble item that would remove the deadlines associated with recall elections from the state constitution. It proposes that the legislature set recall rules by statute, giving election officials the flexibility to handle these chores in a more efficient fashion...Here is some background: The current deadlines for recall petitions were added to Colorado's constitution in 1913, when a recall of the governor, for example, would have required a fraction of the signatures required today. In the event of a recall petition for the current governor, the constitutional deadlines could give election officials as few as five days to hear protests on the validity of 358,200 signatures." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 9:32:15 AM

Denver Post endorsements Here's a short recap of the Denver Post's endorsements so far for the November 7th election, "Governor - Bill Ritter; Amendment 38 (Petitions) - NO; Amendment 43 (Definition of marriage) - NO; Referendum E (Property tax reduction for disabled veterans) - YES; Referendum F (Recall deadlines) - YES; Referendum G (Obsolete constitutional provisions) - YES; Referendum I (Domestic partnerships) - YES." "denver 2006: 9:29:25 AM

Referendum I and Amendment 43 The Rocky Mountain News editorial staff is urging voters to approve both Referendum I and Amendment 43. From the opinion piece, "Voters face two ballot initiatives this fall - Referendum I and Amendment 43 - that tackle this issue head on. We favor the passage of both. "Come again? The News supports the domestic partnership referendum and the amendment defining marriage in the state constitution as between one man and one woman? Yes, and we see no contradiction in our stance. "We think committed gay couples do face unnecessary obstacles and disadvantages in such areas as inheritance, workers' compensation, burials, medical decisions, property division and so forth that by and large should be swept away. (The News itself extends benefits to gay couples, by the way.) Referendum I would level the playing field on all of those matters. "But we also think Coloradans should protect the right to decide whether gay couples should be issued marriage certificates that are in every detail the same as those heterosexual couples receive. That's all Amendment 43 does: It puts the definition of marriage that already exists in state statute into the constitution in order to prevent state judges from declaring a fundamental right to gay marriage and thus repealing Colorado law. The public is far more willing to accept dramatic social change when it is endorsed by a majority of their fellow citizens than when it is decided by what could be a mere four-member majority on the state supreme court." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 9:24:43 AM

Ritter or Beauprez for governor? Bill Ritter's support is dropping in some areas, according to the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "A memo from a pollster who works for Democratic groups warned this week that Bill Ritter's lead in two Colorado legislative districts was shrinking significantly and said Democrats 'need to really begin to tear Beauprez's head off.' The memo by Virginia pollster Andrew Myers was sent Monday to Dominic Delpapa, a local political consultant. In the memo, Myers says his polling found Ritter losing most of his lead in one Larimer County district and dropping from a 9 point lead to 5 points in a district centered on Broomfield." denver 2006" 9:19:49 AM

Referred Question 1A The ACLU has joined the ADL in opposing Referred Question 1A, according to the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "The board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado voted last week to oppose the initiative for the same reasons as the ADL, said board member and Denver attorney Dan Recht. DeBoskey said the preschool plan is 'very well-intentioned' but problematic because it allows religious institutions to collect government funds to teach religion." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 9:15:33 AM

Amendment 40 Opponents and proponents of Amendment 40 are set to hit radio and TV, according to the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "The two sides in the debate over limiting state Supreme Court justices and appellate court judges to 10 years on the bench will hit the airwaves next week with $1.2 million worth of radio and television ads. Opponents of the ballot measure known as Amendment 40, funded largely by the Colorado Bar Association and contributions from individual attorneys, have dropped $900,000 on spots that will run statewide on broadcast and cable television as well as radio, said Stacy Chesney, spokeswoman for Citizens to Protect Colorado Courts. Limit the Judges, the group supporting the ballot initiative, has spent about $300,000 on statewide ads that will run on radio and cable television, said John Andrews, the group's chairman. Limit the Judges has received almost all of its money from Colorado At Its Best, a Golden-based organization that supports term limits." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 9:10:35 AM

Voting by mail Voting by mail is becoming increasingly popular, according to the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "Reasons for the surge in absentee voting include: Mail-in ballots are convenient; In many Colorado counties, clerks now send out notices asking voters if they want to vote absentee; This year, some Colorado clerks are encouraging absentee and mail-in ballots because the ballot is so long, they fear big waits at the polls; Political parties urge their members to vote absentee in case weather turns foul on election day, putting a damper on turnout; Accuracy of the vote count was an issue in the past two presidential elections, and some voters think the paper mail-in ballot is less likely to be lost than an electronic tally on on a computerized voting machine." Category: Denver November 2006 Election 9:05:20 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 11/1/06; 7:45:15 AM.