(Golden) - Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Pam Anderson responded today to statements in a State Senate Hearing made by Governor Ritter?s staff and legislative leaders yesterday that County Clerks across the state were "over-estimating" the fiscal impact of Senate Bill 189, a bill requiring counties to place paper ballots in the polls this year.

"We gave them a conservative estimate of what this mandate would cost to implement this model to the same level of secure, accurate and efficient elections that Jeffco citizens have had in the past. Rather than listening to the expertise of elections professionals, they want to conduct elections on the cheap," said Anderson. "If they want us to successfully implement this new policy for elections they need to step up and pay for it. Our citizens deserve no less," Anderson added.

Senate Bill 189 requires counties to provide paper ballots at each polling place. For large metro area counties such as Jefferson, Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties who have mostly electronic voting equipment this mandate forces a complete change and increases the complexity with which elections are conducted in those counties, all before the August 12 Primary Election. The Help America Vote Act and the system and administration processes it required took four years to implement across the state. Under the Governor?s plan outlined in Senate Bill 189, such mandates are required to be implemented in less than four months. Such sweeping changes so close to Election Day understandably upsets elections professionals.

"The Governor?s Office is telling us we don?t need to print as many ballots as we?ve estimated, we don?t need to hire as many election judges as we think we need, and we don?t need to have equipment necessary to count ballots at the polls, all in an effort to save money," said Jefferson County Deputy of Elections Josh Liss. "If we run out of ballots or have long lines that disenfranchise voters on Election Day, and don?t have a final vote count until Friday after the election, what will they say then?" questioned Liss.

"We just got our voting systems back," said Anderson. "The Secretary giveth, and the Governor and Legislature taketh away."

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