Colorado: Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, along with some county clerks, is being sued by the nonprofit corporation, "Citizen Center" for including bar codes on ballots that would allow them to be traced back to voters. The bar code discovery was made when people tried to get access to the ballots for verification outside of the government. The clerks claimed that they could not make the ballots public because people could use the bar codes to find out how individuals voted. The lawsuit argues that the ballots are illegal because of a state law that prohibits ballots from having "distinguishing marks". The case will go before the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.[1][2]
The Colorado Court of Appeals has already ruled that voted ballots are public records. This ruling is being appealed to the Supreme Court. The new lawsuit is trying to get the bar codes and any other identifiers off of the ballots. Marilyn Marks, an election activist from Aspen, explained, "The problem is they think it is OK if the government knows how we vote. Government officials are the last people in the world who should know how we vote."[1]
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