The dominoes are just beginning to fall in the wake of last Tuesday’s hapless election in Denver. Yesterday, city clerk and recorder Wayne Vaden resigned his office, and the competing candidates for secretary of state announced that they’ll work together to develop state legislation that could prevent the miscues that bedeviled Denver and Douglas County.
We welcome the impulse to act quickly. The Nov. 7 election was like a slow-motion train wreck – it was easy, and frightening, to see it coming. This itemized list shows how sloppy the local election preparations really were:
Harbingers of trouble. In the August primary, vote-center judges reported problems operating new voting machines. Secondhand equipment bought from Chicago, called “card activators,” were blamed for some voters receiving the wrong ballot. Though the equipment was not used in the general election, Mayor John Hickenlooper said the wrong-ballot issue resurfaced, at least to some extent.
Vice versa. In October, 44,000 absentee ballots were mailed with a substantive error on them. The “yes” and “no” boxes for Referendum F, which addressed recall petition deadlines, were transposed. The Election Commission blamed Sequoia Voting Systems.
Postage problem. It was discovered that the absentee ballots included inaccurate return-mail instructions. Each return envelope said 63 cents’ postage was required, when it was actually 87 cents. Once again, the commission blamed Sequoia. The U.S. Postal Service agreed to deliver the ballots and bill the commission for the difference, a tab that Sequoia agreed to pick up.
More money. Just days before the general election, the public learned that the election commission was asking for an extra $768,000 – a 25 percent budget overrun – to pay for the costs of switching from a precinct-based system to vote centers. That’s right – we actually paid more for the privilege of standing in line for several hours.
Hand copy? Shortly before the general election, the election commission said it would hand-copy 30,000 absentees onto new ballots so they could be counted by machine. There was a collective sharp intake of breath from civic watchdogs and the plan was abruptly cast aside.
Famous last words. The last day of early voting brought long lines and waits. Election commission spokesman Alton Dillard said the situation “should not be interpreted as a bad omen for Tuesday.”
System overwhelmed. On Election Day, voters waited for hours to get an OK from the computerized check-in system. Varying explanations have been offered, but we still don’t know exactly why the system slowed to a crawl as election workers tried to check voter registration against a centralized database. Other jurisdictions that used off-the- shelf software saved money and didn’t have such problems.
More malfunction. It’s been a week, and the city is still counting absentee ballots. Several races, including secretary of state, hang in the balance. Officials blamed a broken scanner, causing us to think there should have been one in reserve. Now we hear that the absentee bar codes were in error, delaying the count even longer.
It’s under control. After the election, we learned that city hall tech experts repeatedly offered help to the election commission, but were rebuffed. Apparently the rebuffer was commission technology chief Anthony Rainey. He has been suspended from his post, and questions have been raised about his skills and qualifications.
The first meeting of Denver’s investigative elections panel is set for today, and we’re glad to see the panel get to work. A thorough understanding of the problems that plagued the election will help define the solutions.
Meanwhile, the count in Denver continues – a ridiculous state of affairs that won’t end until even more dominoes fall.
