DENVER � Legislation that would set parameters for the public inspection of voted ballots in Colorado has been introduced.

County clerks pushed for the bill, labeled SB155, in response to a Colorado Court of Appeals ruling last year that determined ballots are subject to public inspection under the Colorado Open Records Act.

�We felt the ruling put clerks in a no-win situation without procedures in place to protect voters� private choices and maintain the highest transparency,� Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert �Bo� Ortiz, president of the Colorado County Clerks Association, explained in a letter to members of the organization.

Under the bill, ballots would be exempt from inspection under the open-records law for 45 days prior to an election through the time that they are certified with Colorado Secretary of State�s Office. It also would establish a process for inspection of voted ballots.

The prospect of open ballots piqued interest and concern from the Colorado Press Association, the Colorado Municipal League and the secretary of state, according to former Colorado Secretary of State Donetta Davidson, now executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association.

The proposed legislation that resulted from those groups� input strays from the clerks� ideal, but removed possible hurdles to its passage in the Legislature. Clerks, including Ortiz, would have preferred to find a way to shield ballots perpetually from inspection when they began crafting the legislation.

�I wanted a court order. I wanted a judge to tell me that I had to unseal my ballots,� he said. �That definitely was my starting position.�

Political parties, campaign operations and the media are groups that Davidson said show great interest in what they can glean from ballot inspection. She said advocacy groups, particularly those focused on election accountability, would prefer that ballots were available for inspection anytime.

�They feel we don�t need the bill, that the courts can settle it when there�s a question about ballot availability,� she said.

�We have a presidential election coming up this year, and we can�t be tied up in the courts when we�re trying to run it,� Ortiz said.

The window in the bill that would shield ballots from inspection is designed to preserve the integrity of elections, according to Davidson.

The forthcoming bill takes steps to preserve the secrecy of how citizens voted, something that Davidson said the court ruling imperiled. Clerks worried that through process of elimination, ballots could be traced back to individual voters.

�You get all the records saying here�s the method they voted, here�s the day they voted, here�s the precinct where they voted,� she said. �When you put that with the voted ballots you can start figuring out how somebody voted.�

Protocols surrounding inspection of ballots proposed in the bill include:

Election officials retain custody of original ballots. Any markings or messages scrawled on ballots require redaction. Duplicate versions of ballots can satisfy inspection requests if exposing an original ballot threatens to impact a voter�s right to privacy and ballots can be offered for inspection in random order for the same purpose. Open-records requests can be narrowed to particular races or ballot questions to limit the cost to the person seeking the records and the price for requested ballot records is limited to the actual cost of retrieving them.

Davidson said uniformity across counties for procedures to review ballots is an important piece of the bill.

�It would be really terrible if we had a quilt of different standards,� she said.