Date: November 8, 2006 10:38:36 PM MST
Subject: [CFVI] A Denver Vote Center, Election Day 2006
For decades, Denver voters went to 400-plus local precinct polling places to
cast their votes on Election Day. Election Day 2006 saw the precinct system
replaced with 55 "Vote Centers".
The old Park Hill neighborhoods in northeast Denver have consistently turned
out eighty and ninety percent of their eligible citizens to vote in elections. Fifteen
or twenty minutes is what people looked forward to in order to carry out the basic
transaction of democracy in their friendly precinct polling places.
No one was prepared for what happened on November 7, 2006.
What follows is the report of a volunteer poll watcher for Fair Vote Colorado
Election Day 2006.
...
I arrived at the Park Hill Methodist Church Vote Center shortly after polls had
opened. The person who happened to be last in line when I arrived would
cast her vote forty-five minutes later. Waiting times only got worse as the day
went on. The twenty-four electronic voting machines in the gym often sat
empty during the day as poll workers struggled with the new electronic regis-
tration system -- four laptop computers to be used in place of the old printed
paper pollbooks.
The computer-based poll book system went down a total of five times at the
Park Hill center. A supervisor told me that at least three of those crashes were
system-wide, affecting all 55 Denver voting centers. Total down-time, said the
supervisor, was between two and a half to three hours. The first shutdown occ-
urred a little after 7:30 am, and caused many people hoping to vote on their
way to work, to leave.
Pete Maysmith of Common Cause drove around to Denver's northeast centers
and reported estimated waiting times back by cell phone, which information was
much appreciated by voters looking at hour and a half wait-times after the first
computer downtime ended at 8:15am.
A second, shorter, computer failure occurred at around eleven o'clock, when the
lunch crowd was starting to lengthen the wait to two hours. Again, many people
left without voting -- this having been the second attempt for some. Noticing the
"Problems voting?" lettering on my yellow FairVote t-shirt, the most common
comment throughout the day -- from people who'd stuck out the waits in line and
the people who'd left frustrated, went something like: "Whose decision was it to
do these 'Vote Centers'? It took me about fifteen minutes to vote in my old precinct,
without all the parking hassle. We need to go back to local precinct voting. This is
a [adjective] disaster."
Just after the second computer crash, it was discovered that there were no more
provisional ballots to give people who had waited in line only to be told that they
wouldn't be allowed to vote on the machines for one reason or another. I was
told by the Park Hill supervisor that election judges went without provisional
ballots for "at least three hours" despite repeated calls to the election commis-
sion. Turns out many vote centers had the same problem. Provisional ballot
provider, Sequoia Voting Systems Inc, hadn't anticipated such a large turnout,
it was claimed. But the Park Hill center ran out of provisional ballots only a third
of the way through the day.
Around the time of the third computer crash, rumors circulated that there was a
court injunction being sought to keep the polls open 'til nine pm, to make up for
time lost on computer problems. Voters waiting in line were increasingly vocal
with their opinions about the Voting Center concept, and many doubted that keep-
ing the polls open an extra two hours would make up for the people put off by the
long lines.
Around three in the afternoon word came that the legal move to keep the polls
open 'til nine had failed. At about the same time a call was spread for emergency
volunteer poll judges. I drove across town to the Election Commission offices to
volunteer. I waited in a line comprised of volunteers, emergency registration
applicants, election judges hoping to score a supply of provisional ballots, and
others. After forty minutes, a man came into the lobby and said the Election
Commission had filled their emergency poll judge requirements, no more app-
lications would be accepted. I drove back across town.
Arriving back at the Park Hill Vote Center after five pm, I saw the longest line of
the day snaking out the lobby doors and wrapping around two sides of the church
complex -- a line that would mean three hour waits for voters. Work and appoint-
ments behind them for the day, Denver voters settled in line for the wait. Terms
like 'deliberate vote suppression', 'disenfranchisement', and 'third-world election-
rigging tactics' were common in the earnest discussions carried on as the chill of
night set in.
Sodas, bottled water, pizza and other snacks were distributed by a campaign or
party unnamed, producing a kind of party atmosphere. A troubador from Love-
land, hearing of Denver's long lines, came to the Park Hill center to sing and play
for the appreciative voters. What could have been the most grueling hours of Elec-
tion Day 2006 were actually fun and uplifting.
The last voter left the Park Hill voting center at 9:44 pm, saying "Can you imagine
what this would have been like if this were a presidential election year? We can't
ever let this happen again."
Submitted by,
Bruce McNaughton
FairVote Colorado volunteer,
Nov. 2006
Denver CO