In smart journalistic move, the Colorado Independent tells us how and why it seeks information from Gessler
It’s great to see the Colorado Independent staying on the story of Scott Gessler’s hollow numbers and unsupported allegations of election fraud.
Today, after Gessler’s assertion Monday that “some” noncitizens voted in Colorado, the Independent’s John Tomasic asked country clerks if they knew of any noncitizens on their voting rolls.
County clerks and staff contacted by the Independent so far in some of the state’s most populous counties, including Adams, Boulder, Denver and Pueblo, have said that they, like Reiner in Mesa County, have no knowledge of any non-citizens ever being registered to vote nor have they knowingly received any requests to be removed from the voter rolls from non-citizen residents of the state.
The Colorado Independent today submitted another open records request asking for any related “work product” created or commissioned by the secretary’s office, including any database searches seeking information concerning non-citizens being registered to vote in Colorado.
You have to assume media outlets all over town are also filing open records requests with Gessler’s office, right?
But we don’t know, because they don’t tell us, like Tomasic did.
I’d like to see reporters from Denver Post and other major media outlets start telling readers on a regular basis when they file CORA requests. Or at least more often. Not after the fact.
This would make us proud of our big daily newspaper and legacy media, like we are of the Independent when it informs us of the actions it takes in the public interest.
Maybe The Post doesn’t make a huge deal of its CORAs all the time, though it might sometimes, because, hey, it adds some drama to a story, no? But it could at least mention more CORA requests in the Spot blog or within articles.
Not telling us about CORAs is old-school journalism, worrying about a scoop or thinking that how journalists do their jobs is not interesting to readers. That’s not true. Quite the opposite.