A group of black activists in Aurora have accused Arapahoe County of trying to sway the vote by sending double ballots to four predominately Republican precincts in a southeastern part of the county .
County officials say it was a mistake by its vendor, Sequoia Voting Systems, and tell those who received two ballots to mark only one and destroy the duplicate.
“This is an error by the printer,” said Nancy Doty, Arapahoe County clerk and recorder. “It is a mistake that the printer has acknowledged. We did everything right. The election has integrity.”
Glenda Wells-Evans, president of Citizens Concerned About Minorities in Aurora, received two ballots. She lives in a largely white and Republican area of Aurora.
“If I’m getting it, my concern is that others may be getting it also,” she said. “We don’t want anything that is going to favor groups of people and not others. When some people are given an edge and are able to vote more than one time, that is not right.”
Doty said no one will be able to vote twice.
“A voter is tagged as having voted,” she said. “The second ballot isn’t counted. If two ballots are in one envelope, neither one counts. We wouldn’t know which one to use. It’s against the law for someone to vote twice. We are able to track that.”
The county issued a news release about the duplicate ballots Oct. 18, saying it hasn’t been determined how many duplicate ballots were mailed. Doty said she had received about 200 phone calls from people saying they had received two ballots.
