Colorado counties prepare to hold in-person voting in jails under new law

Election workers help facilitate in-person voting in a Denver jail. (Photo courtesy of Denver Elections)

Ahead of the November election, county clerks and sheriffs across Colorado need to plan to hold a day of in-person voting at every local jail to meet the requirements of a new law. 

Senate Bill 24-72, which Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into law at the end of May, requires county sheriffs to designate someone to help eligible voters in jails cast their ballots. The designee is responsible for informing confined individuals of their eligibility and coordinating with the county clerk to set up a temporary, in-person voting center at their local county jail. Voters in jail must also receive information on candidates and measures included on the ballot so they can know who and what they’re voting for. 

Jasmine Ross, civic engagement manager at the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition,  said of the 5,205 eligible confined voters in the state for the 2020 general election, only 557 cast a ballot — about a 7% turnout rate. In the 2022 elections, only 231 of the 4,876 eligible confined voters cast a ballot. With the implementation of the new law starting this year, Ross said she anticipates turnout will increase “drastically.”  

“Even though Colorado has implemented such great laws and everything like that, people were still being disenfranchised,” Ross said. “So with this new legislation mandating in-person voting, we know that everyone will have the opportunity, or a better opportunity, to have access to their voting rights.”

The new in-person voting procedures are not required to be in place for the June 25 primary elections. The general election in November will be the first election with full implementation of in-person voting in jails, though some counties already have experience helping people in jail vote. 

Maysa Sitar is Denver’s voter accessibility administrator, meaning she helps support voters in extreme situations including overseas and military voters, voters with disabilities, voters in care homes and voters in jails. Denver held in-person voting for confined voters for three elections in 2023, as well as the presidential primary in February. Between elections, Sitar said her team is in jails checking voter registrations. 

“As an elections division, we do not determine who’s guilty of a crime, it’s not our role,” Sitar said. “The courts determine that, and our role is to provide easy and accessible voting to every single eligible voter.”

Sitar said running in-person voting in jails during some of the smaller elections has helped Denver solve any issues as they arise. She said their experience can help inform other counties around the state to be successful in November.

Many of the voters in jails are excited to have the opportunity to vote, Sitar said, and most people have very positive reactions to the election division’s presence.

“Some of them have been in the position of having a felony in the past and have served their time for that, so having known what it was like to have the right to vote taken away, some of them are grateful to be able to vote now,” Sitar said. “We definitely run into people who are voting for the first time and that’s always a really fun experience to get to talk to them about what that means to them.”

Election workers help facilitate in-person voting in a Denver jail. (Photo courtesy of Denver Elections)

Ross said the law mandates one day of in-person voting for a minimum of six hours at each facility. One of the reasons she said the new legislation is important is because many detained people are deterred from voting just because they don’t know if they are eligible. 

With the new law, people in jails will be able to verify their eligibility, register, and vote all at once. People who aren’t eligible to vote in jail won’t be penalized just for checking. 

For the 2023 municipal elections in Denver, Ross said the confined voter turnout was just under 80%, compared to a 38% turnout for the entire election. 

“With this program that we were able to build, what really moves me when I’m doing this work is just always hearing the stories of first-time voters and the impact that this program has,” Ross said. “This program uplifts our folks inside and their way of thinking and also makes them feel a part of society. This is what we talk about when we are referring to rehabilitation.”

Weld County Clerk and Recorder Carly Koppes said she’s always had a strong partnership with the sheriff’s team in working to get eligible voters in jail their ballots. When the sheriff’s office is taking new people into jail during an election year, part of their intake process includes checking if they want to register to vote. 

Koppes said moving forward, Weld County will bring in people who recently retired from the sheriff’s department to work as election judges in jails. 

“They already know the environment, they already know the processes and procedures and protocols within that environment, and we feel it is a good way to make sure that the sheriff and his employees feel comfortable and also the inmates feel comfortable as well,” Koppes said. 

Her office has also already provided election and candidate information to people voting in jails, so she said they will continue working with printers to make sure blue books and other voting materials are properly distributed. Koppes said she’ll also look to share any other nonpartisan guides on the elections that might be helpful to voters in jails, which could be easier now that people in Weld County jails have access to tablets. 

El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Steve Schleiker said he and El Paso County Sheriff Joseph Roybal met in early June to talk about implementing the new law, and decided to hold their in-person voting on a Saturday to ensure nobody in jail will miss the opportunity to vote in-person due to a court date or other obligation. He said his office will coordinate with the sheriff’s office to provide posters and other materials informing when in-person voting will be held in the jail. 

Schleiker said safety and security for staff as well as the incarcerated voters will be the primary concern as they work to implement in-person voting in the El Paso County jail. He will have four full-time staff members help coordinate voting in the jail, bringing two laptops, a ballot printer, four voting booths, an accessible ballot marking device, as well as a translation device that can help people communicate in over 84 languages. 

“Inmates who wish to cast a ballot will be escorted to our vote center, ensuring their safety and the integrity of the voting process, and back to their assigned pod,” Schleiker said in an email. 

El Paso County’s jail is the largest in the state, and Schleiker said many people detained there are not residents of the county or even the state. While these people can’t vote in El Paso County’s elections, he said he will ensure they can vote legally on the ballot they are eligible to vote with. 

In order to make sure people in jails are actually given the opportunity to vote, Ross said accountability within the legislation was key. If county sheriffs and clerks fail to hold a day of in-person voting, they will be fined $5,000 for each election they miss. 

County clerks have to submit their election plan for the November election to the secretary of state by July 18, including details on how they plan to implement in-person voting in jails. A spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office said the office is developing training materials to support counties as they implement the new requirements. 

Ross said the main concern she has with implementation is determining the best way that counties can distribute election materials to ensure voters get candidate information. While some people expressed concerns around safety when the bill was making its way through the legislature, Ross said Denver has had no incidents as long as they’ve held in-person voting in jails. 

Sitar said planning ahead is key to running in-person voting in jails successfully, and following the typical procedures elections teams would at any other voting center. Koppes said keeping in regular contact with the sheriff’s team and those who will be conducting the elections in jails will be helpful, too.

Koppes said it will also be important to prepare for all possible scenarios, such as a lock down occurring during in-person voting. 

“We always have to plan for the worst case, we do that in normal election planning anyways,” Koppes said. “It’s just continuing to do those same types of good practices all of us clerk and recorders in the state already do, now just obviously in a very new environment.”

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