Colorado: Scott Gessler

A panel charged with fixing Colorado's election system voted Tuesday to support a recommendation requiring the state to hold all-paper-ballot elections starting in 2014, but one commission member compared the recommendation to being held hostage.

The recommendation, which the legislature can choose whether to adopt, urges Colorado to use only paper ballots starting in 2014. Until then, though, the recommendation proposes allowing clerks to continue using their electronic voting terminals without having to get them recertified or have a paper trail that voters can see.

Those two requirements were pressing down on clerks across Colorado, as a bill from last year that provided a one-time fix to certification headaches is set to expire this summer.

Before a room packed with political allies and occasional foes, former state Rep. Bernie Buescher was sworn in as Colorado's new secretary of state this afternoon.

"I regard the Secretary of State's office as, in many ways, the guardian of our constitutional democracy," Buescher, a Democrat from Grand Junction, said after taking the oath of office. "I will do everything in my power to make the process as transparent and as effective as it can be."

In a testament to Buescher's popularity at the Capitol, Republican and Democratic state lawmakers alike came out to watch an event also attended by a number of other state officials, lobbyists and political players.

Before a room packed with political allies and occasional foes, former state Rep. Bernie Buescher was sworn in as Colorado's secretary of state Wednesday.

"I regard the secretary of state's office as, in many ways, the guardian of our constitutional democracy," Buescher, a Democrat from Grand Junction, said after taking the oath of office. "I will do everything in my power to make the process as transparent and as effective as it can be."

In a testament to Buescher's popularity at the Capitol, Republican and Democratic state lawmakers alike came out to watch an event also attended by a number of other state officials, lobbyists and political players.

Before a room packed with political allies and occasional foes, former state Rep. Bernie Buescher was sworn in as Colorado's secretary of state Wednesday.

"I regard the secretary of state's office as, in many ways, the guardian of our constitutional democracy," Buescher, a Democrat from Grand Junction, said after taking the oath of office. "I will do everything in my power to make the process as transparent and as effective as it can be."

In a testament to Buescher's popularity at the Capitol, Republican and Democratic state lawmakers alike came out to watch an event also attended by a number of other state officials, lobbyists and political players.