House Bill 1135 (HB 1135), which would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to preregister to vote in Colorado, has turned into a one-sided attempt by Democrats to boost youth registration in the state despite proponents’ claims of bipartisanship with a goal of fair and accessible elections. While over 85 individual lobbyists and consulting groups have signed on to HB 1135, the only supporters of the bill are liberal activists and leftist organizations.

HB 1135 is titled “Voter preregistration at age 16″ and the summery of the proposal states that, “A person who has reached 16 years of age but who will not reach 18 years of age by the date of the next election is allowed to preregister using any means available to persons of voting age. The registration will automatically become active when the preregistered person reaches 18 years of age.”

The bill, sponsored by Democrats in both the House and the Senate, successfully made its way out of the House on a 37-28 vote, along strict party lines. The partisan legislation is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Appropriations Committee by the end of this week.

Democratic Representatives Jonathan Singer, Lois Court, Jovan Melton, Joe Salazar, and Senator Andy Kerr are the sole sponsors of the act.

According to the bill’s fiscal notes, allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to preregister to vote will cost Coloradans over $500,000. Though the bill was originally estimated to only cost $71,000, the latest amount has grown to a total of $572,112. The Department of Revenue and the Governor’s Office of Information Technology would require $86,000 to comply with the new voting standards. The bulk of the money would go to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, which would need $485,000 to modify the statewide voter registration system to handle the completely new arrangement of taking registrations for children too young to vote.

Read more:http://www.redstate.com/pwatson/2013/04/...neral-assembly/