There were warnings last week that Denver’s software and hardware might have Election Day problems, election officials said.
On Thursday there may have been a problem with the registry software repeatedly rebooting, said Sara Harmer, Denver’s technology implementation manager.
And on Friday the system slowed and briefly crashed in early voting, according to Matt Crane, the Denver Election Commission operations manager.
“This did happen in early voting. It slowed us down,” Crane said of a “sessioning” problem that plagued computers last week.
“That was the cause of the 15 minutes on Friday afternoon when the system went dead,” Crane said.
On Tuesday, major computer software and hardware glitches created frustrating waits at Denver’s 55 voting centers, with some people waiting three hours to cast ballots.
An election judge checking in voters is supposed to exit the software program and close an Internet browser before taking a break, Crane said.
“If they don’t, it leaves sessions open, and too many sessions open caused technopanic,” he said.
“To be honest, it’s something that we’re going to have to cover more in training,” he said.
There was also a problem with the Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. software for registering voters, Harmer said.
The software did not have a “timeout,” Harmer said, “so it stayed open and overloaded the system.”
Denver election officials blamed poorly trained judges, too few check-in computers and an overloaded central computer that had to be rebooted at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Information technology consultants said, however, that it was not surprising that the system, which the city said it tested for 48,000 voters in the August primary, had problems when an estimated 160,000 people turned out Tuesday.
“This isn’t about technology, it’s about taking the appropriate approach to quality assurance and software simulation to ensure the software is working under the expected load,” said Tim Reeser, partner at 3T Systems, a Denver-based consulting firm.
Denver Election Commissioner Susan Rogers called Tuesday’s problems “embarrassing and uncomfortable.”
City Auditor Dennis Gallagher, who recently issued a critical report of the commission, said: “Heads should roll.”
“I am mortified at how this has turned out,” Gallagher said.
Denver based many of its logistical decisions on experiences in Larimer County, which has used vote centers since 2003.
“I had high hopes for Denver, but I’ve been a little afraid of what I would hear today,” said Larimer County Clerk and Recorder Scott Doyle.
A spokeswoman for Sequoia defended the system.
“Keep in mind, it’s election officials in this country who run elections, not voting system vendors,” said spokeswoman Michelle Shafer.
Staff writer Bruce Finley contributed to this report.
Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com.
