Marilyn

R. Marks
891 14th Street, Unit 1916
Denver, CO 80202
970 404 2225
Marilyn@AspenOffice.com



June 30, 2015

Ms. Becky Mizel
Chair, Election Oversight Committee
Colorado Republican Party
Via email (becky.mizel@gmail.com )

Dear Becky:

Please accept my resignation as Secretary of the Election Oversight Committee of
the state party, effective immediately.

The fight to regain election fairness and security in Colorados 2016 election is
crucial. Nationally known author and commentator John Fund addressed the
Western Conservative Summit June 27 and 28 with strong warnings for Republicans
about mail ballots, potential insider manipulations, and the risk of Internet voting in
Colorado. Colorado has never faced the current level of risk of material election
irregularities. Indeed in the discussions of the Secretary of States Watcher Panel on
which I serve, the partisan battle lines are drawn with the Democrats officially
advocating strongly for less security and less oversight.

I sincerely regret that I cannot serve effectively on this committee to help mitigate
the escalating risks to Republican candidates as we move toward 2016. I cannot
advance the righteous cause of the party where leadership provides inconsistent
policy guidance with frequent embarrassing reversals and re-reversals of direction
on issues of election quality. I have wasted much valuable time that should have
been devoted to 2016 election security in attempting to recover from erratic
changes of policy direction from Chairman House.

Most recently, our committees comments to the Watcher Advisor Panel were
improperly discounted in their June 26 meeting because of Houses actions. On June
11 the Election Oversight Committee submitted public comments to the SOS

Watcher Advisory Panel as the Committee is authorized to do. Chairman House

received copies. Upon inquiry from Secretary Williams two weeks later, Chairman
House had his staff disavow the affiliation of the appointed Committee with the state
party. Houses memo to disavow our Committee and work was raised by officials
with me at the Secretarys Watcher Advisory Panel June 26 meeting. This created
the embarrassing impression among panel members that our group had submitted
unauthorized comments under the banner of the Republican Party, despite Houses
charge to us to submit such comments. Only one day later, he apparently asked you
to further the work of the Election Oversight Committee, just after he disavowed our
work to Secretary Williams.

As you know, this was the second false start for the committee since House
authorized it on May 28. Just after appointing the committee and its officers, and
charging us with our duties, within hours he unseated Al Kolwicz as Vice-Chair with
no warning and insisted that the committee be restructured to include county
election officials, and essentially changing the mission of the Committee. After
members resigned from the committee in frustration, House denied making the
decision, although we had received it in writing from him.

My experience with Chairman House in election public policy matters is consistent.
His policy is unfailing inconsistency. No matter which policy he adopts and asks me
to submit to officials, the position will be reversed if officials object. For example,
after he reviewed three drafts and approved the comments for SOS Rule-making
drafts critical of Internet voting, he reversed course when Secretary Williams
objected to the partys position. What ensued was an enormous waste of time (likely
40 man hours of his time and mine) for many twists and turns as House finally
agreed to maintain our original position. The needed focused effort for 2016
elections cannot survive erratic conflicting decisions and policies.

Most troubling is the fundamental philosophy House expressed to me several weeks
ago in the context of the partys future policies for election security. He stated that
the job of the party is to represent both the voters and the official stance of the
Republican election officials in suitable compromises. He stated that our positions
must be acceptable to election officials, implying that the Republican party is to
represent the government in dealing with the voters. Such backwards
philosophies will only lead to more conflict with House and more episodes of his
approving, then disapproving and then disavowing the work of the Committee. I
cannot be effective in such an environment. The work of the Committee is to
promote oversight of elections, not to represent the interests that the government
may have in denial of the problems.


I will not abandon my efforts to support Republican candidates and voters in
election security, but instead I will find a more meaningful and effective vehicle for
the work, where the focus can be on preparing for 2016 challenges, rather then
engaging in unproductive attempts to establish clear state party policies in an
unpredictable erratic decision-making environment.

I will remain fully supportive of the Committees and Partys efforts to enhance the
much needed transparency and verifiability of Colorados elections.

Sincerely,


Marilyn Marks

cc: Steve House
Al Kolwicz
Charles Heatherly
Marc Zarlengo
Ellyn Hilliard