Voters trickled into polling places for Tuesday’s primary elections, alleviating concerns of lines and glitches.
Most counties in the metro area reported light to moderate turnout.
Several clerks said the large number of mail-in ballots cast in this election may have shifted the voting landscape.
“I think most of the people who intended to vote in this election already voted,” Arapahoe County Clerk Nancy Doty said.
Denver was beset with massive voting lines during the 2006 general election, the result of problems with the computerized voter check-in system and a switch to a vote-center model where any registered voter in the city could vote at any polling place in the city.
Alton Dillard, Denver elections spokesman, said there were no reports of major problems, only minor hiccups, and no indication there were any noteworthy lines at polling places across the city.
“I don’t think the turnout has been high enough to cause any,” Dillard said. “. . . When you’re talking about lines, you’re talking about ones that go around the block like we had in 2006. And I haven’t heard of any.”
This year, Denver went back to a precinct-based polling system and is using paper ballots and a paper poll book to check in voters.
Outside the Elections Division office in Denver on Tuesday, some voters dropped off their ballots at the drive-through station.
“Everyone is happy about the new service we have,” said J.D. Withrow, a 22-year-old temporary worker at the division office. “But it’s been relatively slow.”
Dillard said Tuesday was a good opportunity for Denver to fix any of those hiccups before the general election.
With a presidential contest and a U.S. Senate race on the ballot in November, polling centers expect to draw much larger crowds throughout the state.
“Whatever volume we have today,” said El Paso County Clerk Bob Balink, “times it by 50 for this November.”
Adams, El Paso and Weld counties, where voters could cast votes at any center set up in their county, also reported light turnouts Tuesday.
But even with the small turnouts, counting the ballots still went beyond 10 p.m. in many places. In Denver, precinct counts were not reported, making it impossible to determine how much of the vote had been counted throughout the evening as the Elections Division posted updates only once an hour.
Clerks reported no problems with the new statewide online voter registration, known as SCORE. The system, which got its first big test in these primaries, had been the source of trepidation for a number of clerks, who feared it could malfunction under the strain of a large-turnout election and keep voters from voting.
Arapahoe County’s Doty said everything with SCORE ran smoothly, but she hesitated when asked whether turnout had been enough to give the system a good test.
“It’s probably the best test we’ve had so far,” Doty said.
Steve Graff: 303-954-1661 or sgraff@denverpost.com
