Denver November 2004 Election
Here's an opinion piece analyzing the recent election in Colorado from the Denver Post [November 14, 2004, "Colorado lawmakers sent clear message"]. Gail Schoettler writes, "Colorado has often been cited as a bellwether state politically and culturally. It set a tone for religious conservatism long before that movement swept across America's political landscape. It was at the forefront of environmental activism decades ago. For many years, it has had a larger percentage of elected women than most other states. Perhaps, in this most recent election, it has pointed the way toward a future political sea change, one that focuses on pragmatic problem-solving rather than imposing a specific moral agenda on the country."
There were many problems with this year's election, according to the Denver Post [November 14, 2004, "Election Day gremlins"]. From today's Perspective, "As a result of the fixes, there were statewide problems ranging from provisional ballot problems to the lack of clear and timely instructions about all the new election changes."
"The secretary of state's election rules went through at least four different versions this year before the final set of rules was issued on Oct. 22, less than two weeks before Election Day. Similarly, the statewide election judge training manual produced by the secretary of state's office was not issued until a week before the election. By that time, a substantial portion of the state's 16,000 judges were already trained, and many Coloradans had already cast their ballots during early voting."
"There were county-level problems ranging from poor judge training to incorrect interpretation of state law or rules. Denver improperly rejected some provisional ballots cast during the primary. Many Denver precincts ran out of voting materials hours before the polls closed, leaving voters waiting in long lines while additional materials were dispatched."
"Many counties had problems with absentee ballots. Denver sent 13,000 ballots late, Saguache sent late ballots to nearly a third of that county's voters. Instructions on absentee ballots were wrong in several counties, including Denver and Adams. There were inexcusably long lines for early voting in many counties, where clerks have discretion to designate as many locations as they deem appropriate."
"Finally, there was the substantial counting problem experienced in Boulder that resulted in state and national races decided days before the votes from that county were included - giving voters there the understandable feeling that their votes did not count."
"Most prevalent were precinct-level problems. Election judges in Boulder, Denver, Jefferson, Douglas and Weld counties gave incorrect instructions to voters about IDs, and more alarmingly, sent dozens of these voters away without allowing them to cast ballots."
"Some judges incorrectly told provisional ballot voters that they should only vote for president. Some judges were still redirecting voters to other polling places or clerks' offices minutes before the close of polling instead of offering provisional ballots."
11:09:08 AM 
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