GOP Clerk Backtracks, Puts College Paper With Udall Story Back On Stands

U.S. Senator Mark Udall, D-Colo., speaks during a news conference in Boulder, Colo., on Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, where a report on the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire was released. The fire destroyed 168 homes and resulte... U.S. Senator Mark Udall, D-Colo., speaks during a news conference in Boulder, Colo., on Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, where a report on the 2010 Fourmile Canyon Fire was released. The fire destroyed 168 homes and resulted in $217 million in loss. Udall asked for the assessment preliminary report that was compiled by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) MORE LESS
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The Republican county clerk who ordered a college newspaper removed from newsstands because it featured a story on Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) — and thus, in her opinion, violated state law prohibiting electioneering near polling places — reversed herself Wednesday after she received a cease-and-desist letter.

Larimer County Clerk Angela Myers allowed copies of the Rocky Mountain Collegian to return to newsstands outside the Colorado State University student center on Tuesday evening, the newspaper reported.

“When a newspaper — whether it be The Collegian, The New York Times, or The Denver Post, all of whom have newsracks within 100 feet of the Lory Student Center polling location — cover a news story, including the appearance of any candidate running for office, or any measure that is on the ballot (e.g., personhood, a proposed casino in Arvada, or, in past elections, legalizing recreational marijuana), such news coverage plainly is not ‘campaigning for or against any candidate’ or ballot initiative,” an attorney for the newspaper wrote in the cease-and-desist letter.

Myers told the Collegian in a follow-up interview that the law was unclear in her eyes, but she would allow the newspaper to return to the racks.

“It’s the law that you’re not supposed to have electioneering materials in that area, and I am the enforcer of that,” she said.

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