Gessler touts successes in first 100 days

Focuses efforts on improved business environment, election integrity

Denver, April 19, 2011 – Secretary of State Scott Gessler released the following statement today regarding his accomplishments leading to his 100^th day in office. During this time, the Secretary of State’s office has improved the business environment, increased transparency, and worked to strengthen the integrity of elections.

“I am pleased to say that in the first 100 days of my term, we’ve taken the status quo head on,” Gessler said. “Since day one, I’ve put forth a bold, policy-driven agenda aimed specifically at improving customer service and usability while revitalizing voter confidence. Colorado can expect results from the Secretary of State’s office.”

Accomplishments

Business Identity Theft Prevention – Working with state and federal law enforcement agencies and in cooperation with the private sector, the Secretary of State’s office has become a national leader confronting the growing problem of business identity theft. In order to help safeguard Colorado businesses, the Colorado House of Representatives unanimously endorsed Rep. B.J. Nikkel’s HB-1095, which will allow the Secretary of State to implement a password protected business filing system, a major initiative by Secretary Gessler.

Improving the integrity of the voter rolls – Secretary Gessler endorsed legislation requiring photo identification prior to voting (HB-1003) and a bill requiring verification of citizenship for voters that showed evidence of non-citizenship (HB-1252). Currently, Colorado maintains the minimum voter identification requirements leaving the state’s voter rolls susceptible to fraud. These discussions, particularly focused on Gessler’s analysis linking voter records to non-citizen driver’s licenses, have sparked national attention. In fact, the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, referred to HB-1252 as an “inexpensive approach.”

Increasing voter confidence in elections – In addition to improving the integrity of the voter rolls, Secretary Gessler has also worked to increase voter confidence in elections. Gessler met directly with local residents in Saguache County in March to discuss the disputed 2010 election.  When the Saguache Count Clerk and Recorder blocked a public hand review of the ballots, he filed suit to get access to the ballots. In addition, at the invitation of the Colorado Springs clerk’s office, the Secretary of State’s office sent election observers to monitor the Colorado Springs municipal election after some candidates expressed concerns with the conduct of the election. The election turned out to be another success performed by City Clerk Kathryn Young, under the Secretary of State’s observation.

Clarifying and standardizing campaign finance rules – As part of his effort to make the political system more accessible to all citizens, Secretary Gessler has begun addressing our opaque and complicated campaign finance system. The Secretary of State’s office is moving forward to clarify and standardize the campaign finance waiver process. Previously an internal document, the new rule provides a transparent look at the criteria the office uses to evaluate waiver requests for campaign finance violations. Secretary Gessler wants to simplify campaign finance laws with an eye toward increasing participation in the process by individuals from all walks of life.

Prioritization of resources – Secretary Gessler has taken bold steps to eliminate costs, while continuing to provide responsive service to the Department’s customers. For example, he eliminated a project intended to post online all business records from long defunct companies. Of the approximately 50,000 filings received by the Department each month, merely a dozen per month relate to removed business records. The project was estimated to cost $14,704,137, but only affected 12 document requests per month, for a ten-year cost of $12,250 per document.   Records can still be retrieved for customers in one day. Secretary Gessler balanced the incredibly small benefit to customers against the enormous cost in dollars and staff time and he cancelled the project.

Vote abstract completed ahead of schedule – In order to accommodate the bipartisan committee redrawing congressional districts, the Secretary of State’s office provided the legislature with the abstract of votes cast data three months ahead of schedule, difficult under any circumstances.

Improving website accessibility – The Secretary of State’s website has added a Spanish language clearinghouse page. Instead of Spanish only speakers having to click through numerous English only pages, they can now view all of the Spanish language documents directly from the homepage. The page, with limited information for the time being, is the first step in making more information available in Spanish on the website as well as expanding outreach and service to the Spanish speaking community more broadly. In addition, the office has undertaken a top-to-bottom review of the entire website aimed at improved usability for all customers. The office has begun making improvements to TRACER—the online campaign finance filing system—with more improvements to come.

Remaining Initiatives for This Legislative Session

Judicial Training – Secretary Gessler has proposed a plan to provide judicial training for Colorado judges involved in commercial litigation. One of the more important but overlooked ways to create a more business friendly environment in Colorado is to quickly resolve judicial proceedings and ensure our judges have the best training for cases involving business law. The Secretary of State’s office is seeking to implement a judicial training program to bring greater business litigation expertise to the bench in Colorado. The office would facilitate and provide funding for the program, to be run by an outside organization. With cash funds available that originate from business filing fees, the Secretary of State’s office is in a unique position to provide this training now. With passage of legislation to authorize the program before the end of the legislative session, the curriculum will be developed and the course offered before the end of the calendar year.

Completing business related IT projects – The Secretary of State’s office will seek legislation to authorize the completion of business related projects that have languished.

• A business organization project will allow for all business related documents to be filed online, cutting down on paper filings. An average of 25 percent of paper filed documents are rejected, and these filings require more staff time to process. Online filing is easier and more convenient for customers as well as department staff resources.
• A business association tool will complete a system that can maintain one master or parent record under which all filings with our office may be consolidated to provide a single record.  This system provides for a holistic view of the various filings done with our office, improving usability of our system for filing customers and consumers who access our information.
• Development of an online certification of business records. Online certification of documents will allow businesses to obtain certified copies of documents via our website, rather than requiring our staff to conduct research and provide those certified copies. This will save both staff resources and provide access to the documents 24/7.

Cost savings for county clerks – Secretary Gessler is working to initiate legislation aimed at creating cost saving measures for county officials.  The proposal will consolidate mailings required to notify electors and the elimination of a requirement to mail ballots to inactive voters, saving counties postage and printing costs. Last year, counties mailed 800,000 ballots to inactive voters in the primary resulting in just 431 voted ballots being returned. This roughly translates to $1,500 per voted ballot.

Statewide ballot delivery system for military and overseas voters – Secretary Gessler is working with Rep. Marsha Looper, whose district includes Fort Carson, on legislation to create a statewide system for electronic ballot delivery for military and overseas voters. Last year, several counties tested the ballot delivery system in a successful pilot project. The legislation would apply the system to all 64 counties so that members of the military and overseas voters could elect to receive their ballots electronically. 

Election calendar change – Secretary Gessler has worked with Sen. Rollie Heath and Rep. Carole Murray on SB-189 to move the date of the primary in order comply with federal law mandating military and overseas voters receive their ballots 45 days ahead of the election. SB-189, endorsed by both major parties, is moving through the legislature with bipartisan support.