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Senate advances elections overhaul amid heated debate over who controls voter-roll cleanup
Summary
Senators adopted multiple technical amendments to House Bill 11 13 addressing voter registration, expanded voting access, and safeguards. Floor debate centered on an amendment that would shift authority to cancel inactive registrations to the Secretary of State; that amendment failed and related proposals were defeated after extensive exchanges.
House Bill 11 13, a package of election-code updates, dominated multiple hours of floor debate May 1 as senators considered committee reports and a string of amendments.
Senator Wallace, speaking as sponsor, described the bill as building on Colorado's high-turnout system by modernizing procedures, extending voting windows, and strengthening protections against intimidation. "We bring forward 11 13, in the spirit of continuing to optimize our election laws," Wallace said, arguing the bill balances access and security.
The floor later turned to a controversial change that would have centralized authority to cancel inactive voter registrations at the Secretary of State's office. Opponents including Senator Bazely and others argued this would strip county clerks and recorders of local control and degrade accuracy; Bazely introduced amendment L34 to restore county clerk authority. Proponents, including Senator Weissman, said the proposed automation and federal NVRA guardrails provide consistent protections and urged a no vote on restoration, arguing the automated process enabled efficient, legally compliant removals.
A recorded division on amendment L33 (related to campus communications) and a later roll on L34 showed the close nature of the debate. L33 failed in a division, and amendment L34 to restore county clerks' authority was offered and later lost on the floor. After adoption of several other technical amendments (L45, L46, L47, L49, L24), the committee-of-the-whole report was adopted and the bill was placed on the calendar for third reading.
The exchange included direct references to federal law (NVRA), automated processes used by the Secretary of State's office, and varying accounts of ballot-delivery problems in counties. Sponsors and critics agreed on the importance of clean voter rolls but sharply disagreed about who should hold the primary authority to execute cancellations.
Next steps: House Bill 11 13 was amended on the floor and advanced toward third reading; specific implementation details and any administrative rulemaking will follow committee and agency processes.
