Prepared by Beverly Springer

Preliminary Comments:

The program for the December luncheon will be the annual meeting with state legislators from Boulder County. The program for the December 1 noon meeting for members interested in new applications for technology will be presented by Jared Polis who will discuss online education.

Program Summary:

Caroline Powell, the first speaker, is the organizer of the Voter Protection Effort which involved 134 lawyers who volunteered on Election Day to assist at polling places and also to assist at the Clerk and Recorder’s Office. The 2002 national HAVA Act as well as the more stringent Colorado voting legislation created two main problems. The first is the requirement for voters to present an acceptable identification. The group encouraged CU to issue student identification which was very helpful. Also the group provided a poll watcher and an additional lawyer outside the polling place at all the student polling places. The second problem concerned the provisional ballots. Ms. Powell believes that the most serious potential problem with provisional ballots was alleviated when the Secretary of State ruled that poll watchers had to be from the county. This ruling removed the concern that outsiders would tie up the poll by challenging student voters. Overall no serious problems arose on Election Day possibly because the presence of lawyers warned persons who were seeking to discourage voters that such actions would not be tolerated.

Rick Ridder, a political consultant, was the second speaker. He provided a number of observations and facts on both the national and the Colorado election. Thirty percent of the people who voted for Bush nationally like him but do not think that he is doing a good job. The gay issue drove the increase in rural voting. In Colorado people between the ages of 18 and 29 voted 51% to 47% for Kerry. In his analysis of the Kerry and Bush campaigns between March and November, he found that the Kerry campaign had four or five main issues compared to only 1 in the Bush campaign. Iraq dominated the Kerry campaign in the final weeks despite the fact that he was badly hurt by the Swift Boat issue. He made two very interesting points at the end of his talk. He believed that the stem cell initiative in California was an important factor in bringing out voters who also supported Democratic candidates. He wondered if a similar positive initiative in Colorado would not be a good thing for Democrats to consider. Finally he noted that two-thirds of independents voted for Salazar and Democratic candidates for the state legislature although they voted for Bush. Furthermore, a significant number of women voted for Bush but then voted for Salazar.

Alice Madden, the new House Majority Leader, spoke about the factors contributing to the Democrats’ success in taking control in the state house. The success started with the redrawing of the legislative map and with early effort by house Democrats to raise campaign funds. The house Democratic committee supported candidates for open seats and helped draft messages which focused on the daily concerns of their constituents.

Question Period

In response to a question regarding the proposal on changing the way electoral votes are apportioned in Colorado, Mr. Ridder said that in the last ten years twenty-one states have considered a similar proposal. He believes that it will take a long time to get public acceptance.

He also stated that exit polls were valid in this state but he was more guarded regarding exit polls nationally. In Colorado twenty percent of the vote is rural. Salazar ran well in rural areas getting as much as fifty percent more votes in areas than Kerry. Rural voters in the state vote more on the individual and are more moderate than suburban voters.

In response to a question on Tabor, Alice Madden said that Owens is now willing to accept change in Tabor due to the Democratic majority but she does not like his proposal for selling tobacco bonds.