Denver real-estate agent Reidar Keating knew in early October that he would be spending Election Day with family in Michigan, so he and his wife requested that their mail-in ballots follow them there.
Nearly a month later, he is angry and baffled as to why they are stranded in Lansing without their ballots, and he has been told there’s no way for them to vote in this major election.
That’s not technically true. Denver ites who are out of state Tuesday have a last-ditch option to vote via secured fax, even if they never received their ballot, said Clerk and Recorder’s Office spokeswoman Nancy Reubert.
Voters without ballots or who received ballots too late to mail them can call the Denver Elections Division at 720-913-8683 today or Tuesday to request an emergency vote by fax, though each individual request must be approved by the secretary of state’s office, Reubert said.
“There is an emergency procedure, but it’s not a sure thing,” Reubert said.
The secretary of state’s office could not be reached Sunday afternoon for comment. Reubert said only “a handful” of out-of-state Denver voters have contacted her office with missing-ballot problems.
About 200 of the 18,000 ballots delayed last month by printing contractor Sequoia Voting System were for out-of-state voters, she said. The late ballots were expected to hit mailboxes last week.
Others, such as the Keatings’ ballots, might have been lost in the mail.
For many Denver voters, delays meant a trip to an early-voting site for a replacement ballot or a change in plans to vote in person, options not open to voters in other states. Some have said they would shell out the $15 to mail their ballots overnight.
Reubert said Sunday she was unsure why Keating was told only people overseas or in the military could vote via fax and said she would reiterate the proper procedure to elections staff.
Keating said he plans to contact Secretary of State Mike Coffman directly and hopes this election won’t be the first in two decades in which he won’t cast a ballot.
“It’s a huge disappointment. We dotted our I’s and crossed our T’s, and yet the system failed us,” he said.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
