DENVER-
The state has placed Denver and three other counties on an election watch list because of serious voting problems last November and will seek court permission to directly supervise their next elections unless they fix the deficiencies, The Associated Press has learned.
Secretary of State Mike Coffman said Monday he notified Denver, Pueblo, Douglas and Montrose counties last week of his actions. He said he will send monitors into the four counties.
Coffman said Denver and Douglas counties were placed on the list because of long lines at voting centers last November. Pueblo was placed on the list because election officials broke the law and didn’t verify signatures, and Montrose was notified because of multiple, serious security lapses, he said.
“In the last election, the vast majority of Colorado’s counties conducted their elections without any significant problems. However, four out of 64 counties had major problems,” Coffman said.
Coffman said Attorney General John Suthers told him he has the authority under state election laws to set up the watch list and send in monitors. The law requires the secretary of state to “ensure the integrity of elections.”
Coffman said the Help America Vote Act passed by Congress in 2002 after problems in the 2000 presidential election gave state government a greater role in overseeing and coordinating elections.
Denver election officials said software that was supposed to verify voter eligibility stalled during the November election, creating hours-long waits at new voting centers. Final results were delayed for a week when misprinted absentee ballots forced officials to sort them by hand and a counting scanner broke down. Denver got so far behind that police officers were called in to sort ballots.
In Montrose, a shortage of experienced poll workers working with new voting machines was blamed for programming errors, failures to test the machines and failure to secure the machines.
A secretary of state’s report made public last month accused Montrose County election officials of “flagrant violations” of security procedures but found no evidence of fraud or criminal misconduct.
Coffman said Pueblo needs to set up a system to verify signatures on absentee ballots and Douglas County needs to reduce delays that prevented some people from being able to vote.
