Error Spurs Total Vote Recount In Boulder Colorado, by Marcos Mocine-McQueen

Denver Post Staff Writer

Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.

| Chapter 9 — Voting Problems In The 2003 Elections |

| Next — Garfield County, Colorado, Election Investigation Uncovers Many Miscalculations by Mike McKibbin |

| Back — 81,000 Voters Were Not Sent Ballots For Colorado Springs, Colorado, Election by Ed Sealove r |

November 15, 2003 — Boulder County election officials have announced they will conduct a complete recount of ballots cast in the November 4^th election because of an error discovered Wednesday.

The announcement was made late Friday when, county spokesman James Burrus said, officials were confident they had a firm grasp on the nature of the problem.

Ballots are fed into counting machines in bunches of 250 to 300 ballots. Everything up to the point where those bunches are fed one by one into the counting machine went smoothly, said Tom Halicki, the elections division manager.

"It's not infrequently that a glitch happens and you stop that bunch and recount it," Halicki said. "When we do that we go back and erase the first count of that bunch. In this case that didn't get erased."

Even though the bunches are numbered, there is no way to tell which bundle was erroneously counted. The only way to be sure of an accurate count is to recount each bundle from the election.

"Essentially we' re recounting 76,000 ballots to find 300 or fewer," Halicki said.

Officials also will count 68 ballots that required extra time to verify as valid signatures.

There are several elections that are within a 368-ballot margin, including Louisville city council's Ward One, the fourth seat of the Lafayette City Council, a ballot issue to lift term limits in the Longs Peak Water District and a ballot measure to levy a tax in the El Dorado Springs Local Improvement District for the purpose of building a sewage system and treatment plant.

The chances of the recount changing most of those results, however, is slim, Burrus said. Each bundle includes ballots from a variety of areas and districts. It is unlikely that all the erroneously counted ballots would come from one district and vote in the same way on the issue in question.

But the question in the El Dorado Springs Local Improvement District failed by only two votes, 67-65.

"It's within the realm of possibility that these results could swing but the chances are between slim and none," Burrus said. "On most of those (results) it would be almost impossible. Now, on the El Dorado Springs issue, when it's within two votes, you can't say 'never.'"

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| Chapter 9 — Voting Problems In The 2003 Elections |

| Next — Garfield County, Colorado, Election Investigation Uncovers Many Miscalculations by Mike McKibbin |

| Back — 81,000 Voters Were Not Sent Ballots For Colorado Springs, Colorado, Election by Ed Sealove r |

Last modified 6/14/09