On July 1, the Tenth Circuit delayed the briefing schedule in Citizen Center v Gessler, 12-1414, to wait for the Colorado Supreme Court decision in another secret ballot case. In Citizen Center v Gessler, the U.S. District Court had ruled that nothing in the U.S. Constitution requires states to use secret ballots. That is a provocative decision that contradicts other federal court decisions, so the case is interesting and important.

The Tenth Circuit delayed the briefing schedule until the Colorado Supreme Court issues an opinion in In Re Jones v Samora, 13SA148. In that case, the voters of Center, a small town in Saguache County, recalled their Mayor and two of the town trustees on March 19, 2003. The recalled officials then won a ruling in the state district court that the recall election was flawed and should be held over again. The state district court ruled that the recall election was hopelessly flawed because most of the ballots (most of which were postal absentee ballots) were counted while the stubs were still attached. In theory, it would have been possible for the election officials who counted the ballots to have used the attached stubs to see how any particular voter voted. No one alleges that secrecy was actually violated or that any vote-counting individual actually did this, but the court said that the very fact that it would have been theoretically possible for them to have done this means the election was invalid.

The recall election was moderately close. The vote to recall the Mayor was 253-218. The recall was prompted by a dispute over whether the town water rates should be increased.