The Denver
Post
Election officials rally to
the tally
Only Boulder, slowed by a paper ballot system
and balky scanner, has had any trouble counting its part of the state's 2
million votes.
By Kieran Nicholson and George Merritt
Denver Post Staff
Writers
Thursday, November 04, 2004 -
About 2 million of Colorado's
3 million registered voters cast ballots in Colorado,
and officials tallying the votes reported few problems with the exception of Boulder, where the
count was painstakingly slow.
On Wednesday afternoon, officials with the Boulder County clerk and recorder's office
were still counting, and only about 20 percent of the county's 227 precincts
were reporting results.
"The county has been trying to cover up
fundamental flaws with the computer system they selected," said Al Kolwicz, a member of the Boulder canvass board and executive
director of Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election Results.
Software in the new $1.5 million system
cannot rotate scanned images, Kolwicz said, a flaw that forces election
workers to physically orient or align tens of thousands of ballots.
"The software doesn't work," he
said. "The software is incredibly naive."
Robert Corry, an attorney who represented a bipartisan group of Boulder residents who
unsuccessfully sued the county last month over a ballot secrecy issue, said crossed-off
serial numbers on the ballots could be gumming up the works.
"Once again, Boulder
stands alone from the rest of Colorado,"
Corry said. "It is the only county in the state with this system. The
rest of the state manages to count ballots without serial numbers on
them."
Crossing out the serial number "is a
form of preserving your own ballot's secrecy you are entitled to under the
Constitution," Corry said.
But county spokesman James Burrus said the
system is working as designed.
"You want the speed of light, go
electronic," Burrus said. This system "relies on paper, pens and
people."
Burrus said the county went with a slower
system, in part because of public distrust of electronic voting.
A "solution to this paranoid idea was a
paper ballot system," he said.
The county has been counting votes
continuously since Tuesday night and will likely still be counting today,
Burrus said.
Clerk and Recorder Linda
Salas could not be reached for comment.
"Obviously we are troubled," said Paul Danish, county commission chairman.
"I think it is obvious we are going to
have to rethink our processes."
Danish said the new system and the high
voter turnout were a "perfect storm" combination for the county.
About eight hardware, software and
management issues could be corrected, and the system would process ballots
faster, Danish said, adding: "I feel the system is fundamentally
sound."
Jefferson County election officials encountered a problem in the early-
morning hours Wednesday when early polling results were accidentally mixed
with Election Day ballots, said Susan Miller, director of elections with the
county.
"We literally started (counting) all
over again" just after midnight, Miller said.
No ballots were being counted twice, but
county officials wanted to keep the two voting categories separate for
statistical purposes, Miller said.
"It was an easy fix, but it took a
little while to do," Miller said. "Everything is back on
track."
Statewide, vote counting went well, said
Lisa Doran, a spokeswoman for the Colorado
secretary of state.
"This (election) was a great test for
the system," Doran said. "This was a huge election."
Staff writer Kieran
Nicholson can be reached at 303 820-1822 or knicholson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-247-9948 or
gmerritt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
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