Misery loves company, so voters in Denver and Douglas County should be friends for life.
In both jurisdictions, election day waits were inexhaustible and inexcusable. But when it comes to pure stamina, some Douglas residents deserve a gold star and a cup of hot cocoa or something stronger.
Some people stood for five hours. The last vote was cast at 1:45 a.m. on Nov. 8.
A contrite Carole Murray, Dougco’s clerk and recorder, attributed backups to an underestimation of the number of voting machines necessary. There also were scattered glitches with new machines and a learning curve that comes with switching from neighborhood precincts to vote centers.
Murray immediately took responsibility and apologized for the situation, a refreshing change from how Denver election officials reacted to their disaster.
In Denver, the pattern of denial began years ago. The spokesman for the Denver Election Commission – not any of the three commissioners – was the public face for the unfolding fiasco. Alton Dillard offered a menu of excuses that showed neither a grasp of the magnitude of Denver’s problems nor acceptance of responsibility.
Denver has appointed an investigatory commission to examine voting problems. So too has Douglas County.
Problems in Denver have focused on slow voter check-in through a city-wide electronic database. Dougco’s issues seem to stem from sheer volume. It’s ironic that many of Denver’s voting machines stood empty as voters cooled their heels at the check in, while the machines in Douglas County were overwhelmed.
We’ll know more when investigators finish their work, but at first blush it seems that the Douglas problems are more a miscalculation than a system in chaos.
Murray erred when she bought 300 voting machines for $1.4 million when it appeared the county needed 500. The day after the election, she held a news conference to explain the consequences of her misjudgment and to take her lumps. (She said there were scattered problems with printers and battery backups for the eSlate voting machines. Murray also released angry e-mails that she received from citizens.)
Murray is term-limited and won’t be around to see through the changes necessary to upgrade Douglas County’s election operations. It’s a sorry final chapter to her eight years in office.
At this point, there is no reason to think that Murray’s successor, Jack Arrowsmith, can’t straighten things out within the county’s current election unit. Denver is more likely to consider a wholesale change.
