In a first-ever move, the Denver Elections Division is opening up the counting process for members of the public to observe.
Citizens can watch ballot counting through large glass windows, after 7 p.m. until counting is through, according to Nancy Reubert, communications director for the Office of the Clerk and Recorder.
The office is located at 3888 E. Mexico Avenue.
For about another hour, voters will continue to trickle into polling places across the metro area for today’s primary election, alleviating for the moment concerns of lines and glitches.
Most counties in the metro area reported light to moderate turnout so far today. As of 5 p.m., some counties, such as Douglas, said fewer than 2,000 voters had voted at the polls the entire day.
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,” said Arapahoe County Clerk Nancy Doty.
Denver elections spokesman Alton Dillard said there had been no reports of problems and no indication there were any noteworthy lines building up 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.”
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.
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.
In Jefferson County, Clerk Pam Anderson said she visited several polling places this morning – and didn’t see a voter.
“It’s very, very light at the polling place in Jefferson county right now,” Anderson said.
And in Larimer County, where there are no contested primary races, election workers’ biggest trouble is finding stuff to do.
“As I look around the room right now,” Larimer County Clerk Scott Doyle said in a phone call from one vote center, “all my election judges are doing crosswords and – what do you call it? – Sudoku.”
Clerks said turnout will likely pick up in the evening hours.
“We’ll know more after 5 (p.m.),” said Mary Niblack, Douglas County’s election project specialist. “You know, how many people are going to come after work?”
Even if it stays on the light side at the polls today, it doesn’t mean this year’s primaries will have abysmally low voter turnout.
Counties – after sending out a record number of mail-in ballots for this primary – have been receiving tens of thousands of those mail-in ballots back. Clerks say numerous voters have been dropping off mail-in ballots in person today.
That means turnout may be end up being about average with the only difference being that more votes were cast early.
“I think we’re going to be about where we usually are,” Anderson said.
One voter who did choose to cast a ballot at the polls this morning was Gov. Bill Ritter.
“I really like to exercise my vote here,” he said outside his polling place, in the Denver Public School’s administration building.
Ritter said he expected the primary to go smoothly, despite the chaos surrounding Colorado’s election system earlier this year after several of the electronic voting machines in the state were decertified, then recertified. A number of counties are using paper ballots this year to alleviate problems with the machines if they malfunction or the line to use them stretches too long.
Denver has gone to a mostly paper system. Douglas County, which also experienced long lines in 2006, has a limited number of paper ballots on hand at its polling places.
Niblack said as of about noon, about a fifth of voters had chosen the paper option instead of voting on a machine.
“There are no lines,” she said. “It’s been pretty steady.”
In another encouraging sign, clerks have so far reported no problems with the new statewide online voter registration, known as SCORE. The system, which is getting 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.
Adams, El Paso and Weld Counties, who all had voting centers, also reported light turnouts.
“It’s a yawner,” said El Paso County Clerk Bob Balink, who anticipates a short evening.
He said he wouldn’t be surprised if El Paso County knew the outcome of their voting 30 minutes after the polls close.
Several counties, like Denver, Arapahoe and Boulder, opted to print paper poll books from SCORE data rather than use computers to check-in voters online. Larimer County downloaded data from SCORE into its old computerized system to check-in voters.
“When it’s quiet,” Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall said, “we know things are going well.”
Arapahoe County’s Doty said everything with SCORE has run smoothly but 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.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com.
