Disappointed in not being able to vote in the upcoming election?
My ballot arrived on Saturday. I was in Denver and Golden Saturday morning, so didn't have the opportunity to check my mail or complete my ballot until after the mail from Estes Park went out Saturday at 12:30 p.m. So if I stick my completed ballot in the mail today (Sunday) or tomorrow prior to 4:30 p.m., since the only outgoing mail from the Estes Park post office won't leave Estes Park until Monday at 4:30 p.m., it is very unlikely my ballot will make it to the hospital by Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
If you find yourself in the same situation, you are encountering what is known as voter disenfranchisement, or passive voter suppression. This is illegal, but, of course, for the Estes Park Medical Center when it comes to elections or special elections, this is what is known as SOP, or Standard Operating Procedure.
So who should you contact if you have yet to receive a ballot, or received a ballot in the mail too late to mail it back in and have it arrive at the hospital prior to 7:00 p.m. Tuesday? I would contact the local League of Women Voters chapter. One of their stated missions is to stop voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement, and if they are truly concerned about this issue on a national level, they should very much attempt to combat it on a local level. Their email contact information is contactus@lwv-estespark.org
I wrote to this email address with my concerns on Thursday, and have yet to receive any response, but the League has certainly updated their website within the past two days, so they likely just chose not to respond, possibly because I short-circuited the wait and telephoned League members directly. You can do you own Google sleuthing to determine who the League board members are if you don't already know. I don't want to be blamed for providing contact information they don't want published: Some of the current board members have listed telephone numbers, some do not.
I would also contact Joe McConnell, who is at the Department of Local Affairs in Denver and handles district elections in Colorado. His email contact information at DOLA is joe.mcconnell@state.co.us
and he will likely be in his office bright and early Monday morning at (303) 864-7739. I would strongly recommend asking Joe to extend the deadline for receiving completed ballots by mail from Tuesday, May 8 to Tuesday, May 15.
So who should you contact if you have yet to receive a ballot, or received a ballot in the mail too late to mail it back in and have it arrive at the hospital prior to 7:00 p.m. Tuesday? I would contact the local League of Women Voters chapter. One of their stated missions is to stop voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement, and if they are truly concerned about this issue on a national level, they should very much attempt to combat it on a local level. Their email contact information is contactus@lwv-estespark.org
I wrote to this email address with my concerns on Thursday, and have yet to receive any response, but the League has certainly updated their website within the past two days, so they likely just chose not to respond, possibly because I short-circuited the wait and telephoned League members directly. You can do you own Google sleuthing to determine who the League board members are if you don't already know. I don't want to be blamed for providing contact information they don't want published: Some of the current board members have listed telephone numbers, some do not.
I would also contact Joe McConnell, who is at the Department of Local Affairs in Denver and handles district elections in Colorado. His email contact information at DOLA is joe.mcconnell@state.co.us
and he will likely be in his office bright and early Monday morning at (303) 864-7739. I would strongly recommend asking Joe to extend the deadline for receiving completed ballots by mail from Tuesday, May 8 to Tuesday, May 15.
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