In a November 13 article about recertification of Colorado voting machines, The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction noted that “Denver District Judge Lawrence Manzanares ruled in 2006 that Colorado's voting machines were not properly certified for security against tampering.” But the article omitted the fact that in his ruling, Manzanares blamed former Republican Secretary of State Gigi Dennis' office for the machines' lack of security.

As Colorado Media Matters noted (here and here) when the Daily Sentinel previously made similar omissions, The Denver Post reported that in his ruling, Manzanares found that “Dennis' office never created minimum security standards for the machines -- as required by state law.” The Post further reported Manzanares' finding that under former Gov. Bill Owens' (R) administration, “the state did an 'abysmal' job of documenting testing during the certification process.”

Additionally, referring on November 13 to Mesa County officials' “heartburn ... that the state has not recertified voting machines,” the Daily Sentinel did not mention its November 12 reporting that at a recent hearing of the Colorado legislature's Joint Budget Committee, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Janice Rich “attacked [Republican] Secretary of State Mike Coffman for not communicating with her office about the recertification of voting machines the county is planning to use in the 2008 election cycle.”

From the November 13 article in The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction " 'Too many cooks' in debate over how to obey vote-machine edict," by Le Roy Standish:

Mesa County commissioners are looking for ways to save a buck, the county clerk is miffed, and the county administrator is “outraged” as Mesa County looks to comply with the Colorado Secretary of State's mandate that the security of all electronic voting machines be recertified.

A Tuesday afternoon meeting between county commissioners and members of the Mesa County clerk's election staff was intended to flesh out ideas on how to save money on the purchase of 130 ES&S voting machines. Instead, it ended up being a general complaint against Secretary of State Mike Coffman's edict to recertify the security of voting machines.

[...]

Meis and the rest of the commissioners are supporting Clerk and Recorder Janice Rich in her push to do a five-year lease-purchase of the 130 machines, but they did have a bone to pick with the secretary of state.

“There are too many cooks in the kitchen, screwing up this stew,” said Jon Peacock, county administrator. “Voters should be outraged.”

Peacock said federal and state legislation are affecting voting-machine requirements, but state requirements are more onerous than federal requirements. Also causing Mesa County officials heartburn is that the state has not recertified voting machines or clearly stated how county's should conduct future elections.

“The rules are unclear and uncertain, and yet we are being told we have to meet them,” Peacock said. “We need to run an election in 2008. We need clarification now. We should be outraged. They are really tinkering with everything.”

Denver District Judge Lawrence Manzanares ruled in 2006 that Colorado's voting machines were not properly certified for security against tampering. The ruling required the state to recertify all of its voting machines prior to the next statewide election.

In addition to not reporting Dennis' failure to certify state voting machines before the November 2006 election, the November 13 Daily Sentinel article did not include reporting from Mike Saccone's article the previous day noting that Rich blamed Coffman for delays in recertifying the voting machines:

The idea of repealing the Colorado secretary of state's ability to test and certify voting machines is gaining steam among a small group of state lawmakers after a budget hearing last week wherein county clerks lambasted delays in the recertification process.

At a Joint Budget Committee hearing last week, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Janice Rich attacked Secretary of State Mike Coffman for not communicating with her office about the recertification of voting machines the county is planning to use in the 2008 election cycle.

Until late Friday evening, Mesa County and Jefferson County's voting machine vendor, ES&S, had its recertification suspended because the company was not working with election officials.

Had the state not recertified ES&S, the county could have been forced to spend millions on new equipment or run a mail-ballot election in next year's presidential race.