2008.10.16: October 16, 2008: Headlines: Figures: COS - Brazil: Politics: State Government: Election2008: Rocky Mountain News: Pat Waak accuses Attorney General John Suthers of taking part in a GOP effort to stop people from voting
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Brazil:
Special Report: Political Activist and Brazil RPCV Pat Waak:
2008.10.16: October 16, 2008: Headlines: Figures: COS - Brazil: Politics: State Government: Election2008: Rocky Mountain News: Pat Waak accuses Attorney General John Suthers of taking part in a GOP effort to stop people from voting
Pat Waak accuses Attorney General John Suthers of taking part in a GOP effort to stop people from voting
Waak accused Suthers, also a Republican, of taking part in a GOP effort to stop people from voting. Suthers shot back with a letter Wednesday morning. "I understand there's a lot of gamesmanship in politics, Pat," he wrote. "But is it really necessary to respond with vitriolic boilerplate that has the potential to further frustrate public confidence in the electoral process? I would suggest that even politics doesn't justify such irresponsibility." Waak quickly responded, accusing Suthers' office of issuing decisions that disenfranchise voters. "What would give the public more confidence in the electoral process is if the Republican Party and its elected officials stopped using intimidation tactics and creating administrative snafus," Waak wrote. Removal of the nearly 2,500 duplicate names in recent months does not mean those people can't vote, Deputy Attorney General Maurice Knaizer wrote Tuesday. Their names, with the most updated information, are still on the list, Knaizer wrote. Pat Waak, Chairman of the Democratic Party in Colorado, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brazil in the 1960's.
Pat Waak accuses Attorney General John Suthers of taking part in a GOP effort to stop people from voting
Suthers, Waak trade jabs over voter lists
By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published October 16, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.
The battle over management of Colorado's voter list continued Wednesday with angry exchanges between Attorney General John Suthers and state Democratic Party Chairwoman Pat Waak.
It all started with an opinion issued Tuesday by Suthers' office saying Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman followed the law by allowing county clerks to remove duplicate voter files from the state database.
Waak accused Suthers, also a Republican, of taking part in a GOP effort to stop people from voting.
Suthers shot back with a letter Wednesday morning.
"I understand there's a lot of gamesmanship in politics, Pat," he wrote. "But is it really necessary to respond with vitriolic boilerplate that has the potential to further frustrate public confidence in the electoral process? I would suggest that even politics doesn't justify such irresponsibility."
Waak quickly responded, accusing Suthers' office of issuing decisions that disenfranchise voters. "What would give the public more confidence in the electoral process is if the Republican Party and its elected officials stopped using intimidation tactics and creating administrative snafus," Waak wrote.
Removal of the nearly 2,500 duplicate names in recent months does not mean those people can't vote, Deputy Attorney General Maurice Knaizer wrote Tuesday. Their names, with the most updated information, are still on the list, Knaizer wrote.
Today, Waak is scheduled to hold a press conference outside the El Paso County clerk's office to criticize that office's dissemination of what Democrats call false information about college student voting rules.
And at noon today, a variety of voter registration and interest groups plan to hold a press conference outside Coffman's office in Denver to call on him to change a policy that resulted in more than 6,000 voter registration forms being classified as incomplete.
Meanwhile, Al Kolwicz, a Boulder voting activist who opposes mail voting, filed a complaint alleging the statewide voter database does not meet federal standards because it fails to remove duplicate voter files. He wants Coffman's office to stop processing mail ballots until his complaint is addressed.
"There's nothing credible about his complaint," Coffman said.
Mail ballots by the numbers
1,435,932 ballots mailed to voters
100,416 ballots filled out and returned
30,047 ballots received Wednesday
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: October, 2008; RPCV Pat Waak (Brazil); Figures; Peace Corps Brazil; Directory of Brazil RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Brazil RPCVs; Politics; State Government; Election 2008; Colorado
When this story was posted in October 2008, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Peace Corps Suspends Program in Bolivia Turmoil began in Bolivia three weeks ago sparked by President Evo Morales' pledge to redistribute wealth from the east to the country's poorer highlands. Peace Corps has withdrawn all volunteers from the country because of "growing instability." Morales has thrown out US Ambassador Philip Goldberg accusing the American government of inciting the violence. This is not the first controversy surrounding Goldberg's tenure as US ambassador to Bolivia. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Rocky Mountain News
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Brazil; Politics; State Government; Election2008
PCOL42367
18