DENVER—A new commission charged with reviewing how Colorado runs elections will look at whether the state should rely more on paper ballots than electronic voting machines, and whether the state should move toward all-mail elections.

The Election Reform Commission, which met for the first time Wednesday, will also consider stronger postelection audits to double-check the accuracy of vote counts and how voters are canceled from the new statewide database, the subject of a lawsuit the week before Election Day.

The 11-member group is composed of county clerks, election lawyers, a computer security expert and Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, the group's chairman. Five are Republicans, five are Democrats and one is unaffiliated. It is expected to make recommendations by March so lawmakers can make changes in time for the 2010 election.

The Colorado Right to Work Committee violated campaign finance laws in failing to disclose all of the contributions made toward putting Amendment 47 on the November ballot, an administrative law judge ruled.

The group has been fined almost $10,000, a penalty of $50 a day for the period from Jan. 16 to July 29 - the day after the committee’s first report was filed through the day of a court hearing.

Administrative Law Judge Michelle Norcross ruled that the committee failed to report all its contributions in its Jan. 15 campaign finance report.

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The web of liberal nonprofit and political groups operating under the umbrella of the Colorado Democracy Alliance may tiptoe around tax and campaign-finance rules, but the efforts are completely legal, its architects and an expert say.

Led by some of the state's wealthiest liberal donors — Tim Gill, Pat Stryker and Rutt Bridges among them — the alliance focuses on supporting candidates and building a network of independent groups with similar agendas.

A batch of leaked agendas, funding recommendations and meeting minutes shed some light on the largely secretive group's inner workings.

Founded as a corporation, the alliance doesn't have the same restrictions it would under other tax structures political groups frequently use. It can communicate with political committees such as so-called "527s," advocacy groups (501c4s) and tax-exempt nonprofits (501c3s) without inhibition.

Alliance leaders have said the 2008 network consists of 37 organizations ranging from the homegrown — such as the Bell Policy Center think tank and the youth-centered outreach group New Era Colorado — to local branches of national groups, such as environmentalists Colorado Conservation Voters, election-protection campaigners FairVote and leadership builders Progressive Majority.

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Colorado's best-known progressive donors are advancing their political and ideological agenda through a web of advocacy and nonprofit groups, many of which claim nonpartisanship and receive tax exemptions.

The 37 organizations that collectively receive millions at the direction of the Colorado Democracy Alliance (CoDA) serve unique purposes in the progressive power brokers' toolbox.

They build voting blocs, provide policy research, shape media communications, train progressive leaders or encourage civic engagement, according to the alliance's organizing documents.

CoDA executive director Laurie Zeller laid out a bit of the largely secretive alliance's game plan at a meeting at the Democratic National Convention.

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Veteran state lawmaker Ken Gordon will lead the Colorado Election Reform Commission, a new panel that will study voting systems and recommend changes to the state legislature.

Gordon, a Democratic state senator from Denver who is leaving office after 16 years in the General Assembly, sponsored the bill that establishes the commission and has led numerous legislative efforts related to voting issues in recent years.

"A lot of what we're going to do is going to relate to how the 2008 election goes," Gordon said Friday.

"We'll look and see what kinds of problems there are and that will inform what we do."

In addition to Gordon, eight commission members have been appointed. They include four clerks: Scott Doyle of Larimer County, Patti Nickell of Bent County, Stephanie O'Malley of Denver and Bob Balink of El Paso County.

Other members include Deputy Secretary of State Bill Hobbs; lawyer Scott Gessler, who is deeply involved in Republican election issues; Castle Rock Town Clerk Sally Misare; and Mark Baisley, a Douglas County Republican who previously has run for office.

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A state representative lodged a campaign-finance complaint against Gov. Bill Ritter today, kick-starting a second investigation into campaign funds Ritter has said were spent incorrectly.

The complaint, from Rep. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, prompts the process for reviewing campaign-finance violations. Without the complaint, it is unclear whether the Secretary of State's Office could have begun a formal inquiry.

"There are some very specific rules you've got to follow," Lambert said of campaign-finance laws. "This seemed to violate at least several of them and needs to be investigated further."

Last week, Ritter, a Democrat, announced that his former campaign manager, Greg Kolomitz, wrongly used inaugural funds to pay off more than $200,000 in campaign debt and also overpaid himself by about $83,000.

Kolomitz has repaid the salary overage, and Ritter took out a loan to repay the misspent funds. Ritter had also turned over information to several officials, including the state attorney general, for investigation. Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers has been tapped to investigate if criminal charges are warranted.

"If there are other parties who believe that other agencies should also review this, we welcome that," said Evan Dreyer, Ritter's spokesman.

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Higher education's ivory tower is crumbling. Colorado's public university establishment will tell you this demise is due to neglect and lack of funding. The truth, however, is much more complicated.

In 2007, we've got an opportunity to save our universities — redesigning them into competitive and innovative institutions that will thrive well into the next century and beyond. Will our universities allow this essential transformation to happen?

This month, Colorado's university presidents are pleading with state officials for $832 million in increased funding. They speak passionately about the need to hire more tenured faculty, reach out to rural students, and address neglected infrastructure needs.

We can only assume that this dialogue is a pretext for a conversation they will initiate with voters next year, pleading for more money through yet another statewide tax increase. But before we give them another cent, we need to make sure that the money they've got now is being spent in the most efficient way possible.

Ample evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that it's not.

As part of higher education's larger plea, Metropolitan State College president Steve Jordan is asking for $2.8 million to expand Metro's percentage of tenure-track faculty. But the last thing we should be doing is throwing money at a system that is largely broken.

In the aftermath of the Ward Churchill scandal, we should be asking questions about the value of our tenure system — which, in Churchill's case, served as a mediocre job-protection program for his unscholarly work.

While the University of Colorado has taken baby steps toward reform, it remains plagued by an inescapable conundrum: By making it so incredibly difficult to fire a professor — in Churchill's case, it took more than two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars — tenure largely removes the incentive for professors to compete and excel in their respective fields.

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Higher education's ivory tower is crumbling. Colorado's public university establishment will tell you this demise is due to neglect and lack of funding. The truth, however, is much more complicated.

In 2007, we've got an opportunity to save our universities — redesigning them into competitive and innovative institutions that will thrive well into the next century and beyond. Will our universities allow this essential transformation to happen?

This month, Colorado's university presidents are pleading with state officials for $832 million in increased funding. They speak passionately about the need to hire more tenured faculty, reach out to rural students, and address neglected infrastructure needs.

We can only assume that this dialogue is a pretext for a conversation they will initiate with voters next year, pleading for more money through yet another statewide tax increase. But before we give them another cent, we need to make sure that the money they've got now is being spent in the most efficient way possible.

Ample evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that it's not.

As part of higher education's larger plea, Metropolitan State College president Steve Jordan is asking for $2.8 million to expand Metro's percentage of tenure-track faculty. But the last thing we should be doing is throwing money at a system that is largely broken.

In the aftermath of the Ward Churchill scandal, we should be asking questions about the value of our tenure system — which, in Churchill's case, served as a mediocre job-protection program for his unscholarly work.

While the University of Colorado has taken baby steps toward reform, it remains plagued by an inescapable conundrum: By making it so incredibly difficult to fire a professor — in Churchill's case, it took more than two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars — tenure largely removes the incentive for professors to compete and excel in their respective fields.

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Republican Secretary of State Gigi Dennis made controversial changes to Colorado campaign-finance rules after requests from lawyers who work for the state GOP, gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez and a powerful Republican political committee, records show.

The attorneys filed documents with Dennis' office in February requesting limitations on the campaign activities of some traditionally Democratic groups, such as unions and small-donor committees.

Dennis, who said Wednesday that politics played no role in her decisionmaking, adopted some of those proposals after a public hearing.

"I thought it was a good idea to have transparency in the election process," she said. "How can you say it's motivated politically when it's consistent across the board? It affects both Republican and Democratic memberships."

She said the issue was first broached by the two lawyers, not by citizen complaints. She said about 90 percent of all campaign-finance rule changes arise from candidates, lawyers and individual citizens.

The rules were published on the Internet. Democrats attended the June hearing and opposed the changes.

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The administrative law judge, Robert Spencer, found that Holtzman used the group to circumvent campaign finance laws that limit contributions to gubernatorial candidates to $1,000.

But Holtzman's attorney, Gabriel Schwartz said the law unconstitutionally muzzles candidates' right to speak out on issues.