Summit County braces for high election turnout

BRECKENRIDGE — Unprecedented voter interest in the upcoming presidential contest will challenge Colorado’s election system overall, but Summit County is in great shape, Secretary of State Mike Coffman said this week.

Coffman, visiting the county clerk and recorder’s office in Breckenridge on a statewide tour of election offices, cited a projected high voter turnout as well as an unusually lengthy, initiative-filled ballot as two major factors that could combine to create problems on Election Day in November.

“I think Colorado might be in the eye of the storm,” he told local officials Thursday.

In an effort to avoid the embarrassment of 2006 — when the state had the dubious honor of having the last vote cast in the U.S. at 1 a.m. in Douglas County — Coffman is urging voters to vote by mail, thereby avoiding long wait times at the polls.

“I see the future as being voting by mail,” he said. “I hope voters consider that option.”

In the upcoming election, 18 initiatives will appear on what Coffman acknowledged might be the longest ballot in state history. In addition to minimizing wait times, using a mail-in ballot would allow voters to take their time to consider each initiative carefully.

Although the office of the Secretary of State oversees elections in Colorado, individual counties are responsible for the actual administration and vote-counting, and procedures vary somewhat from county to county.

Summit County has used a “hybrid” system for several years — voters can choose to use a fully-automated computer voting machine or stick with a traditional paper ballot. Even the paper ballots, however, are counted by electronic scanners.

Coffman praised local methods, observing that a hybrid approach reduces waits on Election Day.

In Colorado, there are still a handful of counties that offer only electronic voting, and at least one — eastern Colorado’s Cheyenne County — that continues to tally its paper ballots by hand.

In the age of instant-media election reporting, quick and accurate unofficial vote tallies are also a priority for Coffman, who noted the strong performance of Summit County in last month’s primary election, when unofficial results were posted at 8:10 p.m.

“That’s very fast, and I really commend them for that,” he said. “Summit County was extremely fast relative to other counties of any size.”

Push for mail-in voting

The more voters opt for mail-in ballots, the quicker votes can be tallied, Coffman said.

By law, counties are allowed to tally their mail-in votes as they receive them, but they are not permitted to report any results until 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Summit County Clerk Cheri Brunvand agreed with Coffman on the importance of mail-in voting.

“We can get the results out much faster,” she said.

In Summit County, about 35 per cent of voters in last month’s primary voted by mail, said Summit County election administrator Kathy Neel. Statewide, about half the primary votes were mailed in.

This election cycle marks the first time voters have been able to place their names on a list to receive mail-in ballots at every election. In previous years, voters had to request an “absentee” ballot every time they wanted to use the mail option.

The new system of “permanent” mail-in voters has eliminated the use of the traditional absentee ballot, and election officials no longer use the term.

About 900 of Summit County’s 15,000 registered voters are currently on the mail-in list, according to Neel.

When active voters receive their voter information card later this month, they’ll have the option to request to be placed on the list, beginning with the November election.

“We’ll start sending ballots out around Oct. 6,” Neel said. After that date, state law requires the clerk’s office to send the ballots within 72 hours of receiving the voter’s request.

Security of the mail-in system shouldn’t be a concern for voters, Coffman emphasized. The U.S. Post Office is prohibited from forwarding ballots, and the law requires each county to verify signatures on those they receive.

As yet, there is no statewide system in place for voters to check delivery confirmation of their ballots, but Neel said local voters are welcome to call the clerk’s office and receipt can be confirmed.

Like Coffman, Neel strongly encouraged voters to consider the mail-in option. Recent voter-registration drives in the county have brought in nearly 500 new applications, and Neel is expecting the election to set local participation levels.

“II think it’s going to be the biggest one we’ve ever had,” she said.

Election information:

If you haven’t voted since the 1998 general election, your name has been removed from the voting rolls, and you must re-register by Oct. 6 if you want to vote in November.

If you voted in 2004, but not in 2006 or 2007, you’re still registered, but you aren’t considered “active,” so you won’t receive a voter-information card by mail this month. If you don’t receive the card, but still want to vote by mail, an application for a mail-in ballot can be downloaded from the county’s election website.

For more information, or to check your registration status, visit www.co.summit.co.us/Elections/index.htm, or call (970) 453-3479.