Coffman Announces Schedule for Reconsideration of Voting Equipment

Denver, February 12, 2008 – Secretary of State Mike Coffman announced today a schedule to review his December 17, 2007 decisions that decertified much of the electronic voting equipment used in Colorado. This comes after the passage of House Bill 1155, which Coffman requested just prior to the start of the Legislative session.

“It’s important that the clerks know, as soon as possible, what voting equipment they will be able to use for the upcoming election.” said Coffman.

House Bill 1155 gives greater flexibility to Coffman to consider modifications and additional security procedures, without compromising security and accuracy standards, in reconsidering his earlier decisions which led to the decertification of electronic voting machines used in six counties and optical scan machines used to count paper ballot in 49 counties.

“Before the passage of House Bill 1155, this process could have taken up to several more months to complete, but under this new law, we will have answers to the clerks by the end of next week,” said Coffman.

According to Coffman, all of the additional testing has already been accomplished by the Testing Board. The testing data has been analyzed, and the Testing Board is now drafting its final report. However, no final decisions will be made until Coffman has had the opportunity to first listen to testimony from county clerks, the vendors of electronic voting equipment, and concerned citizens given at a public hearing to be held next Tuesday?.

Schedule

Friday, February 15, by 5:00 pm – Posting on the Secretary of State’s website (www.sos.state.co.us) Testing Board reports on its additional testing related to major deficiencies cited in the December 17, 2007 decertification decisions by the Secretary of State.

Tuesday, February 19, 2-5 pm at the offices of the Secretary of State at 1700 Broadway, Suite 250, Denver - Public hearing with presentation/demonstrations by the Testing Board on the additional testing relating to the major deficiencies cited in the December 17, 2007 decertification decisions by the Secretary of State.

Thursday, February 21, 9:00 am – Final decisions issued on potential recertification of voting equipment pursuant to House Bill 1155.