Ingrid Maygivens had waited on and off for four hours to vote, carting around her 2 1/2-year-old granddaughter from polling place to polling place Tuesday in search of a voting center without a long wait.
She thought she had found the right place when she walked into Westerly Creek Elementary School in Stapleton, but then the computer system crashed.
“I’m not a happy camper at all,” Maygivens said as she waited in line. “I can’t even say I’m a happy voter, because I haven’t voted yet.”
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Outside Park Hill United Methodist Church, Bevin Hartnett had found a voter angry enough to complain officially about long lines and computer outages.
“He says he’s willing to make a complaint,” Hartnett said into his cellphone. “But he wants to know how long it will take.”
In a few minutes, Hartnett, who said he was working on Bill Ritter’s gubernatorial campaign, had arranged for a fellow Ritter supporter to pick up the disgruntled voter and drive him to the downtown courthouse where a judge was hearing arguments for and against keeping the polls open until 9 p.m.
Susan Burnett, a church employee, said she had never seen problems like those on Tuesday.
“I saw one gal doing her knitting,” she said. “I said, ‘You’re smart, but you’re gonna have a really long scarf.”‘
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At Manual High School, disgruntled voters waited nearly two hours during the afternoon when the system crashed for the third time.
“I was sent here from the Botanic Gardens. They said it would be less of a wait. Then they had the glitch,” said Paul Garcia, a 64-year-old hairdresser nearing the front of the line after an hour and 40 minutes.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” he said. “People have jobs and lives.”
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At the Athmar Recreation Center in southwest Denver, polling-station manager Frank Lujan said the computer system went down twice, once for about 30 minutes and once for about 45 minutes.
“When we got here, the computer was down,” said Deseree Martinez, 27, who managed to cast her ballot after an hour.
“A lot of people were walking out of here because they couldn’t wait,” she said. “I was going to walk out. And then I said, ‘No. Every vote counts.”‘
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When the polls closed at 7 p.m., 275 people were waiting to vote at the Tattered Cover Book Store in Lower Downtown.
Kristy Fenton waited for three hours to reach the front.
“It’s really inconvenient,” she said. “I know a lot of people are not voting because of this, and that’s what makes me angry.”
Beverly Traylor was perusing the books as she waited.
“The things on the ballot are well worth it,” she said, “so we just have to be patient.”
Compiled by Jeremy P. Meyer, David Olinger, Katy Human, Karen Augé, Katharine Bernuth, Bruce Finley, Jeffrey Leib and Allison Sherry.
