I commented on a Denver Post article about Colorado obstacles to flow of public records under CORA:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29105740/study-faults-colorado-weak-laws-public-access-information

I rely on open records (CORA) to be able to verify election results- something that newly available voting systems available to Colorado can facilitate. New systems enable election verification by anyone interested: campaigns, political parties, integrity advocates, etc, Colorado is testing four systems now. I have been asked by some counties to pay thousands of dollars to have otherwise available scans of ballots checked for identifying marks. Other counties are simply making sure the ballots are anonymous as part of their transparency service. Here is more about that story:

Should I as a member of the public be required to pay to make sure that all voters followed the constitutional requirement not to mark the ballot with their signature? Mail-in voters have to sign the envelope, but never the ballot inside. When the ballot comes out of the envelope it must become anonymous to protect the privacy of the voter’s intent. In Colorado this protection is provided only when after the election someone asks to see the anonymous ballots and it turns out not all of them are. That person asking is required to pay to have all the ballots checked for the signatures that should not be there.

But the anonymous ballot is by law a public record. Huge charges to a requestor form an inappropriate obstacle to the flow of an important public record.

More information is available in the previous post: https://electionquality.com/2015/11/harvie-bransco…routefifty-com/