The Denver Election Commission rejected or ignored offers of technical assistance from Mayor John Hickenlooper’s office as many as seven times leading up to Tuesday’s election, a Cabinet official said Thursday.
And election commissioners cut off meetings with Hickenlooper’s top electronic employees about two weeks before the commission’s computer system sent the election into chaos, city officials said.
Katherine Archuleta – Hickenlooper’s senior adviser for policy and initiatives and recently his chief operating officer – recounted a series of critical points going back months where city officials insisted on changes or preparations that never came.
The moments include a confrontation last week after pollbook computers – used to verify voter registration – crashed during early voting.
Delays caused by computer problems on Election Day led to hours-long lines at the polls and an untold number of disenfranchised voters as Denver attempted its first general election with a system of 55 vote centers rather than hundreds of neighborhood polling places.
In response to the problems, City Auditor Dennis Gallagher has filed paperwork to do away with the commission in favor of a single, elected clerk and recorder.
Hickenlooper has formed a task force to evaluate problems at the Election Commission.
But at least two City Council member questioned Hickenlooper’s task force Thursday given that a task force examined the Election Commission as recently as August.
Hickenlooper has also taken heat for suggesting to Councilwoman Rosemary Rodriguez in 2005 that she pull a plan to revamp the commission because of concerns about efficiencies in the clerk’s office.
Under scrutiny from the public Wednesday, Hickenlooper took responsibility for fixing the commission, but he claimed previous efforts by his staff to help the commission had been “rebuffed.”
Archuleta said Sara Harmer – the city’s technology implementation manager – went to the Election Commission last week and insisted that the city help with the issues.
“At that point,” Archuleta said, “the Election Commission IT manager (Anthony Rainey) stressed that this office was independent from the mayor’s office said that everything was under his control and that he did not need any assistance.”
Archuleta said she called commission executive director John Gaydeski the next day to express “once again my deep concerns that one person was in charge of their technology – that this was a serious issue that I thought he needed to address.
“John Gaydeski listened to me, thanked me for my concern – he was cordial – and that was the end of the conversation,” she said.
Reached Thursday night, Rainey declined to comment, saying he was busy tallying the election. Commission spokesman Alton Dillard said Rainey denied ever rebuffing Hickenlooper’s staff.
Gaydeski confirmed that Archuleta last week insisted on additional personnel to help oversee computer systems, but he said by that point it was too late in the process.
“At that point, how do you bring in another person,” he said.
On Wednesday, Gaydeski said he did not remember any technician ever being rebuffed – as Hickenlooper had claimed.
But Archuleta said the city’s oversight was not limited to the days leading up to Tuesday’s election. She said as far back as a year ago she and others were meeting with commission officials to help them transition from elections with hundreds of polling places to the vote-center model used Election Day.
The city proposed a partnership with the commission to let them use city information-technology experts, but the commission did not accept, she said.
“I actually suggested to Gaydeski in about June that it would be helpful if they actually had an expert come in who really knew how to assess the impact of the vote centers on the technology,” Archuleta said.
To that end, city officials had an information-technology company called Gartner write up a proposal. But again, the commission said “no.”
Gaydeski said Gartner’s plan would have cost $150,000 – too much for the commission, which at that time was over its budget by $400,000. Recently, the commission asked for a budget supplement of more than $750,000.
Archuleta said she continued to tell commission officials during the summer that having one person in charge of election technology “makes absolutely no sense.”
Finally, on Election Day, as computer problems began to stall Denver’s election, Archuleta and Harmer again went to commission officials in person.
Once again, they were told that everything was under control.
Commission spokesman Dillard confirmed that Rainey did tell city officials that everything was under control.
Clerk and Recorder Wayne Vaden, who last week advocated for Harmer’s assistance, said Rainey’s apparent reluctance is understandable given the breadth of responsibility he has. And he said he believed last week’s computer problems were of a different nature than those on Election Day.
But he recalled insisting last week that the staff do everything possible to prevent problems.
“I literally said,” Vaden recalled, “that if this happens (Election Day), it’s my butt.”
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-954-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
