News and analysis right to your inbox. Click to get Ballotpedia’s newsletters!

Colorado Supreme Court to review ballot image case

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
The Judicial Update

April 30, 2012

Denver, Colorado: The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to review the decision of the Colorado Court of Appeals to release copies of the ballots for Aspen's 2009 Mayoral race under the Colorado Open Records Act. The suit was originally filed by Marilyn Marks, after she lost the 2009 Mayoral race to Mick Ireland. She requested the images of the ballot and was denied by the city. Ultimately, the Colorado Court of Appeals agreed with Marks, ruling that the state constitution did not protect the secrecy of the ballots. The city filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, claiming, “In elections, there is a functional conflict between two important values: the ability to verify election results and the right of voters to a secret ballot. All election systems used in the United States since the introduction of the secret ballot in the (late 19th century) have sought to strike a compromise between these two values. In arriving at a compromise, election systems have uniformly given greater weight to secrecy over verifiability.” The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the issue shortly.[1]

See also

Footnotes