Absentee ballots 'lost' at printer

By Gabrielle Crist, Rocky Mountain News
October 20, 2004

As many as 13,000 absentee ballots have yet to be mailed to Denver residents after a miscommunication with a California printer.

The latest glitch is one in a string of delays that has kept some Denver voters from getting their absentee ballots, but election officials promise they are on the way.

"If people don't have them by Friday, they should worry," said Denver election commissioner Sandy Adams.

The printing process didn't get off to a timely start because election officials were waiting for a judge to rule on whether Reform Party candidate Ralph Nader was going to be on the ballot.

Once they found out Nader would be listed, election officials sent the ballots to their California printer in two batches. One batch had about 13,000 ballots and the other contained about 34,000, officials said.

The larger batch was printed and sent to voters, but got caught up in the mail because it went out right before Columbus Day, a federal holiday.

In addition, some of those ballots were accompanied by contradictory instructions: One passage stated recipients should mail their ballots back by Aug. 6, a reference to the primary election.

Other instructions clearly stated the ballots should be returned by Nov. 2.

Alan McBeth, a spokesman for the Denver Election Commission, said the information wasn't updated after the primary, but has since been corrected.

Once the first batch went out, election officials thought they were back on track. Then their phones started ringing. And ringing. And ringing.

Residents wanted to know where their absentee ballots were. Election officials explained the delay with the Nader lawsuit and Columbus Day.

But the phones kept ringing.

Officials got suspicious, investigated, and discovered Monday that the California printer never printed the first batch of ballots, election commissioner Susan Rogers said.

They are being printed now, though, and will be on their way to voters soon.

"If people are leaving town or need one right away, they need to contact us," Rogers said.

A phone call to Sequoia Voting Systems, the Oakland-based contractor that handles the printing, was not returned Tuesday afternoon.

Denver residents worried about receiving their absentee ballot on time can go to the Election Commission office at 200 W. 14th St. and request a replacement.

As part of a separate effort to encourage early voting, the City and County of Denver is providing free parking around the Denver Election Commission office Monday through Friday, between 2:30 and 6 p.m. through Oct. 29.

Free meters will have yellow bags on them.

On Election Day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., there will be a designated lane for drop-off ballots in front of the Election Commission office.

If voters choose not to get a replacement absentee ballot, they can go to the polls and vote with a provisional ballot, but it won't be counted until their voter registration is verified.