An overhaul of the way Denver voters have cast their ballots for generations will get its first election-day test when residents head to “vote centers” during Tuesday’s primary.
While there are concerns about access for people such as nursing home residents, election officials have said a larger, more centralized voting system will allow the city to comply with new federal voting laws.
“This wasn’t an arbitrary decision,” Denver Election Commission spokesman Alton Dillard said. “In order to have the necessary technology to be both ADA- and Help America Vote Act-compliant, we had to reduce the number of places where voting was available.”
But he said the election commission is asking community members and political parties for their help.
“We’ve asked the community to do what they do every election cycle and that is make sure that their seniors are able to get out and vote,” Dillard said.
On Tuesday, 47 vote centers around Denver will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Unlike the case with voting precincts, Denver voters may go to any location they choose regardless of where they live.
All voters must have identification with them.
For this primary election, voters will be able to vote for candidates within their own party, as well as a proposed city franchise agreement with Xcel Energy.
Unaffiliated voters may vote on the franchise agreement, or they can affiliate with a party on election day and vote for party candidates as well.
Jenny Rose Flanagan, associate director of Common Cause Colorado, said voters should take advantage of this opportunity to learn about and test the new system.
“I would encourage people to go to their vote centers and check it out,” she said. “This is sort of our test run for election day in November, when we are going to see a much higher turnout.”
The voter center system is born out of access requirements in the federal Help America Vote Act. The 2002 act requires that every polling place have a voting booth that is accessible to people with disabilities.
Tuesday’s primary will also be the first election day test for Denver’s new “direct recording electronic” machines. Denver’s purchase of the machines was questioned by city auditor Dennis Gallagher and others because of questions raised around the country about the reliability of electronic machines or “DREs.” Through about a week of early voting, however, Dillard said there have been no problems with the new machines.
“Voter feedback has been good,” he said. “They were really impressed with the user friendliness.”
State Rep. Jerry Frangas, D-Denver, said he did have a problem last week when he went in to vote for himself – among others – but got a ballot without his name on it.
“You can imagine that I was concerned this kind of thing was happening to other people,” he said.
Dillard said the problem happened when an election judge accidentally programmed the wrong ballot style onto a computer card Frangas was using. But Dillard said the problem has rarely occurred.
“We’ve probably heard about this happening four or five times all week,” Dillard said Thursday.
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-820-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
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