Attack ads, political fliers and “he saids” or “he dids” are flying fast and furiously with a week to go before Election 2014 is decided. But there’s another aspect to this election that has flown under the radar.
“This election is going to be a lot more efficient,” La Plata County Clerk Tiffany Parker said about the mail-in election. “It’s a lot more controlled, not just a one-day event getting 20 sites up and running, getting the judges there, making sure the machines work. This is all pretty seamless.”
There is one caveat about a mail-in election, she said.
“I think voters should mail ballots by Wednesday to be safe,” Parker said. “Since Durango’s mail goes to Albuquerque before being delivered, and Bayfield’s and Ignacio’s goes to Denver, it’s better to allow plenty of time.”
Parker hopes the ease of voting will get more voters to cast a ballot.
“There’s no reason everyone cannot vote in this election,” she said. “Every eligible elector had a ballot delivered to their doorstep. And if they still want to go to the polls, they can. Since there are no precinct polling locations, just voter service centers and polling places that are open for several days, they can just go wherever it’s most convenient for them.”
This year, Parker installed two 24-hour drop boxes – one at her offices in Bodo Industrial Park and one at the Bayfield Town Hall.
“They’re being used pretty heavily,” she said.
People who did not receive a ballot may be considered inactive, said Rich Coolidge, spokesman for Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler.
“It used to be if you did not mail in a general election and mail had been returned, you were considered inactive,” he said. “Now, if any piece of mail has bounced back to the county clerk as undeliverable, you’re considered inactive. You can still show up and request a ballot; you just have to prove you’re you.”
The election is controlled in another way, through the instant verification of voter status via the Colorado secretary of state’s voter-registration database.
“We can check immediately to see if you’ve already sent in your ballot or voted at another polling center, because every county in the state has to conduct the elections the same way,” Parker said. “So there’s no way to vote twice. But if you messed up your ballot or lost it, you can request another one.”
The instant checks may mean you’re more likely to be called or visited by candidates or political parties if your ballot has not yet been received.
“In 2002, you could get that information, but you’d have to sit down and manually go through the list to identify who to target,” Coolidge said. “Now, as soon as a ballot is cast in Durango, it shows up on the voter-registration report.”
Instant checks and the elimination of the need to vote at a specific precinct site make something else more efficient.
“A lot of provisional ballots happened because people were at the wrong precinct or had a problem with registration,” Parker said. “In the 2012 election, we had more than 700 provisional ballots in La Plata County, which took days to verify. In the 2014 primary in June, we only had 20 provisional ballots in the whole state with this new system.”
Be sure to provide identification with your ballot if you registered by mail or via a registration drive and didn’t provide identification. And don’t forget to sign your envelope.
“People can come in and complete their ballot with a form of ID, but they can’t change their vote,” Parker said. “We’ll send an affidavit to people who forgot to sign, and they have eight days to return it.”
Does Parker have an idea of who’s winning at this point, as they’re already starting to run them through the machine to be counted?
“Absolutely not,” she said. “Everyone thinks I must know, but the memory card is under seal. None of us will have any idea until we break the seal at 7 p.m. Election Day and run the first results.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
A glance at this election
More than 33,000 ballots were printed, inserted in envelopes, addressed and shipped in palettes from Runbeck Election Services to the La Plata County clerk and recorder. Selected after a bidding process, Runbeck has provided the service to La Plata County for three years. Runbeck, based in Arizona, handles the ballots for many counties in both Arizona and Colorado.
The ballots are mailed through the Durango Post Office so the county clerk can use her nonprofit status.
About 30 judges will not only staff three voter centers and polling places, they also must verify thousands of signatures and scrutinize each ballot to make sure no stray marks will conflict with the voter’s intent when the ballot is fed machine-counted.
La Plata County Clerk and Recorder Tiffany Parker said 260 county voters are overseas, serving in the military, students, in the Peace Corps or working out of the country. They can download a ballot, and they can fax, email or mail their ballot by Election Day. Their ballot must be transmitted or postmarked by Election Day and arrive within eight days after the election.
A recount occurs automatically when the difference between the two candidates is 0.005 percent, or a half of 1 percent, or less.
If the margin is larger, a candidate may request a recount but must pay for it. A recount costs about $700. If the recount flips the results and finds the other candidate won, the county clerk’s office will pay for the recount.
A transportation team will transport ballots from the various polling centers and ballot drop-off locations around the county to the clerk’s office for counting throughout Election Day, so the final returns will be available more quickly that night.
As of Oct. 1, there were 3,570,490 voters registered as Republican, Democrat or unaffiliated in the state, broken out as 1,137,481 Republicans, 1,318,914 unaffiliated voters, and 1,114,096 Democrats.
Key election dates
The League of Women Voters forum will be rebroadcast periodically until the election on City Span 10. It may be streamed via computer at www.durangogov.org/cityspan10 from the City Span 10 website; and will be available for checkout from the Durango Public Library on DVD.
Voters may register as late as Nov. 4 when they go to vote on Election Day at Voter Services and Voting Centers.
Here are some key dates for the Nov. 4 election:
8 a.m. to noon Nov. 1: Saturday Voter Service and Voting Centers open at the clerk’s office and Bayfield Town Hall.
8 a.m. to noon Nov. 1: Saturday Voter Service and Voting Center open at La Plata County Fairgrounds.
Visit www.laplatacountyclerk.org for more information.
