The more we learn about Denver’s election day diasaster, the more absurd it all seems. We shudder to think what investigators’ final findings will look like.
Anyway, quit whining already!
“I find it amusing that people will stand in line for three days to get a new PlayStation, but they complain about a couple of hours in line to vote.”
Those are the sentiments of the state’s chief elections officer, Secretary of State Gigi Dennis, quoted Nov. 18 in The Pueblo Chieftain as she pondered the impact of long voter lines in Denver and Douglas counties.
Making light of the disenfranchisement of thousands is hardly befitting the office she holds. Dennis should be expressing dismay – even outrage – about long lines that chased away voters. One thing we’ll never know: how many voters were actually deterred by the problems and simply didn’t vote. The number could be as high as 20,000 in Denver – the difference between the anticipated turnout and the actual vote count.
This isn’t a case of you get what you paid for. The nightmare has put the Denver Elections Commission $1 million over budget.
This isn’t a case of no harm done. Three elections were hung up waiting for a final vote count, and one of them still is hanging fire – the election for a seat on the University of Colorado Board of Regents. It could be Dec. 1 before we know if the winner is Brian Davidson or Stephen Ludwig.
A close race and a spate of difficulties – including slow counting of provisional ballots in Boulder County – created an awkward situation. The race will almost certainly end in a recount and further delays.
Denver’s delays were felt most keenly by Davidson, a Republican, and Ludwig, the Democrat. When votes were tallied immediately following the election, Davidson had a small advantage. It seemed destined to disappear as votes from Democratic Denver were finally counted, two weeks later. It’s logical to think that if elections had run smoothly Ludwig could be making plans for holding office rather than worrying about the last trickle of provisional ballots.
The revelation that takes the cake for absurdity (so far) is news that the Denver Election Commission had what turns out to be a non-sensical backup plan for the failure of their electronic poll book.
As has been well-documented by now, the city’s voting system was paralyzed by slow access to a centralized voter database. Now it’s come to light in the Rocky Mountain News that the commission put a copy of the database on each laptop at vote centers. Not that it mattered. Most poll workers didn’t know the list existed.
A city task force is hard at work to determine what went wrong Nov. 7 and to make recommendations for a fix-up. We trust that the long list of missteps from the 2006 elections will be a learning experience and not merely a farcical legacy.
