Workers Handle Ballot Problems   

Raj Chohan     CBS4Denver    01 November 2005

(CBS4) DENVER Colorado voters head to the polls Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to cast ballots on several state and local issues.

Secretary of State Gigi Dennis said about 45 percent of Colorado's registered voters will probably cast ballots based on previous off-year elections. Dennis thinks the high-profile Referenda C and D ballot questions might result in a record-breaking turnout this year.

Thousands of Coloradoans voted early by mail or in person.

Some of those mail-in ballots were causing problems before election day.

Some voters in Arapahoe County said they never received their ballots.

Folds in the ballots in Boulder County were also causing concern.

Election workers said Monday they had a pretty good handle on the problems. The clerk's office in Boulder County was trying to make sure things went smoother than the last election when it took days to get the votes counted.

The area of Arapahoe County where some ballots weren't received include voters in Bennett and a few blocks of west Centennial.

"We're looking into it, I have no verification it's a post office situation, it could be something else, but we sent ballots out to everyone," Nancy Doty, the Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder said.

Doty said everyone who wants to vote will be able to. Those who didn't receive a ballot should come to the clerk's office and get a ballot to vote with.

"We've encouraged them to come in and get a replacement ballot," Doty said.

The folds in the ballots in Boulder County may cause machines to miscount the votes in the critical statewide Referenda C & D issues.

"Prior to the ballots being scanned, we're actually sorting them, a bipartisan team of collection judges is looking for any under-votes in the race as well as the county 1C question because the fold runs through there in some cases too," Josh Liss, Boulder County's election coordinator said.

Election workers predicted less than 2 percent of ballots will be effected.

Boulder County said the printing errors that caused the long delays in the last election have been fixed. Officials expect a timely return when the votes are counted.

At least 18 representatives from four states will be observing Larimer County's vote centers Tuesday. Anyone can vote with proper identification and voter verification at any voting center.

Larimer County scrapped its 143 precincts and merged them into 30 vote centers in 2003 to cut costs. Adams, Weld and Otero counties also will use vote centers on Tuesday.