BOULDER ? A
special investigative committee will probe election week snafus and delays
that have angered county residents and cast public doubt over the
competence of the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder?s Office.
County commissioners met Wednesday to approve the committee?s
formation. The commissioners didn?t mention names of potential committee
members in the brief meeting but agreed that they should appoint four
members, while Boulder County Clerk Linda Salas will pick three members.
Boulder County?s ballot counting did not conclude until Friday, more
than 72 hours after polls closed last week.
?We certainly understand that getting a count in three days is not what
the county of Boulder wanted, and we all feel that way,? Commissioner Tom
Mayer said during the short session at the Boulder County Courthouse.
?What we?re doing here today is trying to find out (what happened), get
all the facts and not act on speculation.?
Commissioner Ron Stewart said residents and county officials suggested
forming the committee to get to the bottom of the multiple problems.
Printing irregularities on the ballots created problems for optical
scanners, which read and tally votes. Up to 500 ballots in a deck of 600
were rejected by the machine, forcing resolution teams to count ballots by
hand.
The slow returns kept the results of ballot initiatives in close races
unknown for three days. In a couple of cases, the results still depend on
the count of provisional ballots, which must be completed by Sunday.
Commissioner Paul Danish said a committee of objective people might be
able to pinpoint problems and offer solutions for hardware, software and
management errors.
?The objective of the exercise is to make the system work and not
primarily to assign blame,? Danish said.
He added that having the committee outside of government could lend
credence to its findings.
?That is just what we do here,? Danish said. ?We have always attached a
lot of importance to community participation.?
The meeting attracted several people who have followed the tally
debacle, along with reporters from Boulder County and Denver.
Mayer suggested that the commissioners wait until Nov. 24 to appoint
the committee.
Salas said she hopes to appoint people who assisted in the actual count
because they already have an idea of the complications in the
process.