Colorado's Democratic Party chairwoman on Tuesday accused Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman of improperly giving the GOP a one-week deadline extension for designating candidates for the August primary ballot.

State Democratic Party chairwoman Pat Waak said at least three Republican candidates in state legislative races were allowed onto the primary ballot, even though the party designated them after the date that Democrats were told was the deadline for putting candidates on the ballot.

"I just think it really is an unfair process," Waak said. "Clearly, we were given a different set of dates and rules than the Republicans were."


The filing deadline was June 5th. The Republicans added 3 candidates more than a week later. There were mitigating circumstances that make this a less than clear cut case of law breaking but there is at least an appearance of some malfeasance and impropriety.

Why do we act shocked when the partisan politicians who control our elections act like partisan politicians? You'd think after Katherine Harris we would have learned. No? Well then surely after Ken Blackwell people would start seriously discussing reform. Still nothing.

There has to be a better system for running our elections than vesting all power in the hands of an elected partisan. An appointed elections commission seems like an obvious starting point to discuss reforms. I'm surprised that we haven't had a serious discussion about this at any point in the last 8 years. The issues that the current system raises are obvious and we have concrete examples of how these issues have played out in real elections. There has to be a better way.