The last-minute amendment to Senate Bill 210 will protect Colorado elections

Sirota’s amendment was good for Colorado

Re: “An underhanded amendment and Polis’ smart veto choice,” June 9 editorial

Your overwrought editorial blaming Rep. Emily Sirota for proposing an amendment to Senate Bill 24-210, a bill strengthening and defending Colorado election laws, was without merit. Additionally, you declared that Rep. Sirota’s amendment, which passed with no opposition, was “underhanded” and “subverting direct democracy.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The election bill amendment does not prevent multi-millionaire Kent Thiry’s ballot proposals from going to a vote of the people in November, it just allows Colorado to figure out if the proposals will work here if they get on the ballot should voters approve them. Rep. Emily Sirota was absolutely right to work with clerks and other organizations to allow the implementation phase-in approach. Her co-sponsor, Sen. Steve Fenberg, praised the amendment on the floor when it passed overwhelmingly in the Senate and yet escaped your wrath.

Spare me the pearl-clutching over an amendment added to a bill at the end of session. All kinds of amendments are added to bills in the countdown to the legislature calling it quits. The governor added his “transit fee” amendments to two bills (including the election bill) to get around a possible ballot measure from the rental car companies!

Kent Thiry didn’t bother to discuss his plans to upend Colorado’s “gold standard” election laws with the people who run elections: the county clerks. I’ll take Rep. Sirota’s collaborative approach over Thiry’s bulldozer approach any day.

Mike Cerbo, Denver

Editor’s note: Cerbo is a former state representative.

Colorado has the “gold standard” of election laws: safe, secure, accurate, and voter-friendly. So I am glad that Rep. Emily Sirota worked with clerks and voter advocacy groups to get a phased-in approach if drastic changes to Colorado elections are approved by voters in November.

Colorado’s ballot initiative process is dominated by wealthy people and special interests who produce glitzy campaign ads but don’t explain cost, complications or adverse impacts. Let’s figure out if it really works in Colorado and doesn’t screw up a voting system that is the envy of the nation.

Lucy Squire, Highlands Ranch

Editor’s note: Sauire is the president of the Douglas County Federation.

One romantic memory of Hanging Lake

Re: ” ‘A one-of-a-kind gem’,” May 3 news story

They were a young couple on a honeymoon trip around Colorado when they encountered a sign announcing the Hanging Lake trail and decided to check it out.  There was a small parking area with a couple cars parked there already but leaving them plenty of room so they got out to look around.

It was the 1960s and the girl was wearing a skirt as was the style then and the boy leather-souled shoes. Serious climbing was not on their mind but they decided to try the primitive trail to see how far they could go. At first it was easy, mostly flat and smooth, encouraging them to keep going. Soon it became steeper and the trail rougher. Finally, when it was obvious they were approaching the lake, they tackled a really rough patch with a rusted iron railing and large rocks to navigate. They had come too far to quit.

And there it was, a crown jewel of a site. It was a small pond – “lake” seemed too majestic – with water so clear you could see all of a tree that had fallen into it long before. Bordering the pond on the far side an active water fall giving the scene a feeling of awe you’d get from viewing an Albert Bierstadt painting. The couple roamed the site for an hour or more just absorbing its perfect harmony while not saying much.

That couple remembers that experience clearer now than any other from their honeymoon and would love to return, but age has slowed us too much. Is it too late for the Park’s people to add one more feature to the trail design, an escalator?

Harry Puncec, Lakewood

The eastern stretch of I-70 has deteriorated

Re: “Colorado’s bold new approach to highways — not building them,” June 2 news story

I just finished a 4,000-mile trip to visit family and friends. The absolute worst highways on the entire trip were in Colorado. From the state border to Limon on Interstate 70 is no way to welcome visitors to our state. Colorado should be ashamed of the pitiful condition of I-70. Don’t pay to take your kids on a roller coaster ride. Take them on a road trip and get one for free.

Patricia A. Queen, Lakewood

A Republican dismayed by choices in November

I am an 82-year-old lifelong Republican and a Vietnam veteran who has voted all Republican in each election for the past 60 years. My choice now is between a 78-year-old liar, a convicted felon, election denier, scam artist, immoral, fake Bible seller, and Mafia-type boss, or an 81-year-old, over-the-hill, once respectable American who has now turned himself over to the extreme liberal social and political agenda.

What’s my choice? No one?