The 2011 version of Denver Clerk and Recorder Debra Johnson has become fond of saying the issue of sending inactive voters ballots in the 2011 election is an issue of "fairness." She even went on MSNBC's liberal, lower rated version of Bill O'Reilly last night, The Rachel Maddow Show (video), to grandstand on the issue. The problem…as Complete Colorado first reported, Ms. Johnson did not see the same issue of "fairness" when she didn't mail any ballots to inactive voters while running the 2007 Aurora election.

Per Complete Colorado:

Yet in 2007, Johnson conducted a municipal mail-only election in Aurora that sent ballots only to active voters. No ballots to registered but inactive voters were mailed at all, and according to the city's website at the time, "There will be no Precinct Polling Places, Vote Centers or Early Voting sites open for the 2007 Election."

Johnson says equating Aurora's 2007 election to Denver's upcoming election is an apples-to-oranges comparison. "The City of Aurora didn't conduct the elections, we coordinated with three different counties," Johnson said.

Johnson added that in order for the 2007 Aurora election to have included mail ballots to any kind of registered yet inactive voter, she would have needed an agreement with the clerks in Adams, Arapahoe, and Douglas Counties. When asked if she took any steps toward creating or discussing such an agreement, Johnson said she did not.[Peak emphasis]

Not only did Johnson not mail inactive voters, but she made no attempt to whatsoever. We'd say the issue of fairness is more about whether Johnson can be allowed to grandstand, uncorrected, on an issue she has no credibility on.

It was altogether unsurprising that Maddow's staff had not prepped her with that key piece of information. It wouldn't have fit with Maddow's monologue about Republicans hating voters, and for good measure, apparently hating Latinos too. For good ratings on MSNBC you can't forget to include false accusations of racism against the GOP.

The liberal machine in Colorado is attempting to ride this issue all the way to the bank, fundraising furiously off of it, and now trying to drive the issue national. To those paying close attention it is pretty clear it is pure political theater on their behalf.

The legislation that caused this problem in the first place, which said ballots shall be mailed to active voters, specifically avoiding mention of mailing inactive voters, was written and passed by the Democrats in the Legislature and signed by a Democrat Governor. 

Beyond that inconvenient fact, the bigger issue here is two-fold:

1. Debra Johnson is a terrible, hypocritical poster child for this issue. After not finding an issue with not mailing ballots to inactive voters in Aurora in 2007, she now has the gall to claim it's an issue of fairness in Denver in 2011. She has nothing to stand on and makes the whole crusade against Scott Gessler look foolish and hypocritical.

2. Where is the outrage from liberals at the other county clerks, especially Democrats, who have decided not to mail inactive voters in 2011? If liberals really cared about all voters getting to vote, they'd focus at least some of their energy attacking County Clerk and Recorders who aren’t mailing inactive voters — a list that includes more than a few Democrats. If Common Cause, ProgressNow and the other organizations that survive on a diet of liberal anger succeed in having inactive ballots mailed to voters in Denver and Pueblo, where does that leave inactive voters everywhere else? As Secretary Gessler has (poorly) tried to explain, as a statewide election, there must be uniformity in the election across counties. You can't have one county mailing inactive voters, while others don't. That would make for an unfair and non-uniform election, which clearly violates federal election law. 

This issue has strange relevance to Florida in 2000, but not in the way liberals would like. Just as Gore's campaign requested a recount in only the liberal counties, liberals are requesting extra ballots be mailed only in the liberal counties. You see, Democrats don't really care about everyone voting, just their own voters. 

We hope some solid reporters will expose this liberal crusade for what it really is — political grandstanding being cheerleaded by a figure found to be completely and undeniably hypocritical on the very issue at the heart of the controversy — mailing inactive voters ballots. 

We know Rachel Maddow will ignore countervailing evidence, as nuance and fact doesn't sell well on cable news. Hopefully there are some reporters back here in Colorado that won't fall for the liberal PR machine's lies.