Colorado Daily: Elections manager Halicki resigns

[Doug Grinbergs <saule@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.coloradodaily.com/articles/2004/12/08/news/news03.txt
Elections manager Halicki resigns
Richard Valenty
Colorado Daily
2004-12-08

Tom Halicki, Boulder County elections manager, has announced his resignation from the position effective Dec. 31, saying he worked too many hours, particularly during the 2004 election.

Halicki took the management position and moved to Boulder in 2003. He said the job was keeping him away from pursuing Boulder's outdoor recreational opportunities.

"At the end of last year, my girlfriend and I just kind of looked at each other and said 'We haven't done many of the things we moved here to do,'" said Halicki. "We wanted to get more active in climbing and make an effort to run more. That pretty much didn't happen."

Since 2003, Halicki and other county election employees or volunteers have faced a number of time-consuming election challenges.

In 2003, municipalities in Boulder County conducted a mail ballot election, and city of Boulder ballots were recounted after it was discovered that one batch of ballots was run through the scanners twice.

In 2004, the county began a search for a new voting system. Halicki said he spent numerous hours meeting with election system vendors, participating in public hearings and speaking to the county commissioners before the county purchased a system from vendor Hart InterCivic.

"After that, we went right into taking delivery of the new system, getting trained on the new system, a mock election, the (August) primaries and the general election," said Halicki.

The bulk of Boulder County results from the Nov. 2 general election were released Nov. 5, due in part to misprinted ballots that could not be "read" properly by county scanners.

The slow release of election results led to negative media attention and citizen ire -including talk of a possible recall movement against Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Linda Salas.

Halicki said the pressure and scrutiny from the November election was less of a factor in his decision to resign than the cumulative effect of working too many hours and too many weekends.

"Basically, all the printing problem with the ballots did was add a day or two to the process," said Halicki. "At that point, we'd already been working so much for so many weeks, which culminated in an all-nighter on election night. We expected to have to count the next day, and counting for two more days was hardly the end of the world."

County Commissioner Paul Danish said he would not be involved in selecting Halicki's replacement, but will be making appointments to a joint committee to investigate problems with the last election.

"I know the kind of hours he (Halicki) was putting in, and I'm sure he is exhausted," said Danish. "Although results from the last election came in very late, I think we had a very accurate count, and I think that counts for something."

Halicki said whoever takes his job will probably have to deal with even more changes in county election procedure. He said if the county purchases Direct Record Electronic (DRE) machines for upcoming elections, the county will need more employees with technical ability.

Halicki also said he believes the county might need to add "one-and-a-half" new election employees to meet the demands of evaluating new voting equipment, integrating with an upcoming new state voter registration system and record numbers of new registered county voters.

The county will be looking to replace Halicki in time to work on the City of Boulder special election scheduled for March 2005. A job description will be posted on the county Web site, www.co.boulder.co.us, next week.