Long Lines, Glitches Frustrate Voters

Computers That Verify Voter Registration Go Down Temporarily

The Denver Channel | UPDATED: 9:21 pm MST November 7, 2006

DENVER -- Balky, unreliable computers, the
longest statewide ballot in decades, high voter
turnout, new centralized vote centers and unfa-
miliar new voting machines have frustrated
thousands of voters who found themselves wait-
ing at least an hour to cast their ballot Tuesday.
times during the day and there weren't enough
machines to meet the need, 7NEWS reported.
Also, the volunteers who were inputting the in-
formation in the computers were slow, election
officials said.

The problems were most severe in Denver and A Denver Election Commission officer called the
Douglas counties, with lines that extended out voting problems "embarrassing" but said it was
of the buildings and sometimes down the block. an important learning lesson.

At 7 p.m. when polls closed, hundreds were still

waiting in line in both counties and were told to
expect to wait a couple more hours until they
reached the front of the line. The last person to
vote in Denver was expected to vote at 9:30
p.m.

Both Democrats and Republicans were worried

that voters were turned off by the long lines,
and leave without casting their vote. Denver
County leans Democratic while Douglas County
is a Republican stronghold.

"We're slammed," said Carole Murray, Douglas

County clerk and recorder. "It's just a big turn-
out and a long ballot."
Of the 12 machines at one Douglas County vote
center, only a few of the machines were work-
ing throughout the day, 7NEWS reported. That
led to lines that were four hours long at 7 p.m.
Carol Conner, 69, waited in line for two hours
to cast her ballot at a public recreation center in
Highlands Ranch. She said she's lived in Douglas
County for 13 years, and has never waited so
long to vote -- but she'd do it again if necessary.
While the problems in Douglas County dealt
with not enough working voting machines, the
biggest problem in Denver was the laptop com-
puter system used to verify voter registration.
The server that the computers were operating
went offline or got bogged down a couple of
Lisa Marie Ledesma took this photo Tuesday
morning of unused voting machines at the Wel-
lington Webb Building while people stood in
line for more than an hour.
The lines were at a standstill until those com-
puters were back online. Unlike voting in pre-
cincts, where volunteers could check paper reg-
istries to see if the voter is registered to vote in
the precinct, Denver voters were all listed in
voters rolls that could only be accessed through
the laptops.
If the laptops went down, or were having prob-
lems, there was no way to see if a person was
registered to vote in Denver County.
It was the first general election in Denver since
it switched to 55 regional voting centers from
scores of precincts. Denver was one of 21 coun-
ties in Colorado that were using voting centers
instead of precinct polling locations.
Elections officials in the state's biggest city were
already planning to hand-copy as many as
30,000 absentee ballots because of a printing
mistake on a proposal to change the handling of
recall elections.
One Denver voter said she waited in line for
almost two hours in downtown Denver while
nearby voting machines stood idle.
"The problem was waiting for people to pass
through the screening process, of residency and
registration," said Lisa Marie Ledesma.
She said election officials at the Webb Munici-
pal Office Building encouraged those standing
in line to contact Denver election officials to let
them know that they need more laptops and
officials checking for registrations.
In Westminster, almost 4,000 Xcel customers
were without electricity Tuesday morning and
the power outage was affecting voting there.
Power was restored about an hour later. Power
failures slowed voting at some Denver locations,
but voting machines had backup power and
weren't affected, a spokesman for the Denver
Election Commission said.
Kevin Caffrey, a 43-year-old school teacher from
Denver and a registered Republican, was furious
after he was forced to stand in line for more
than an hour.
"Every individual who put me in line, I'm voting
against them. I've been waiting in line like an
animal. This is a nightmare," he said.
"This is positively ridiculous," said Jack McCros-
key, clutching his cane while waiting at the
Washington Park polling place in southeast
Denver. "At 82, I don't deserve to have to stand
out here. What if it had been 10 degrees today?"
Some voters in Denver were turned away and
told to come back, said Brian Mason, a spokes-
man for the Democratic Party. Others were
given provisional ballots, which can be verified
later and then counted, but those ran out, he
said.
While most voters were patient, several who left
the long lines said they planned to search for
other vote centers with shorter lines or not vote
at all.
Both Democrats and Republicans had poll
watchers stations at polling places to keep an
eye out for irregularities.
"Denver was a disaster and this disaster hit low-
income people and people of color voters the
hardest. One woman we spoke with had been to
three different voting centers and with comput-
ers crashing, long lines, and general incompe-
tence, she wasn't able to vote today. This was a
disenfranchisement nightmare," said Bill Van-
denberg of the Colorado Progressive Coalition.
New voting machines also made for slow going
across Colorado, said secretary of state spokes-
woman Lisa Doran.
"Despite the training, some of the election
judges are intimidated by the machines," she
said.
Jon Winterton, 66, who said he had been wait-
ing for an hour and 15 minutes at the Washing-
ton Park polling place, didn't mind.
"I love voting. Tonight is like other people's
football games. I love watching the returns," he
said.
At Denver's Botanic Gardens, where the line
stretched outside for quite a ways, the Gay
Men's Chorus entertained voters waiting it out.
At a senior center in a northwest Denver resi-
dential neighborhood, volunteers for both gu-
bernatorial candidate Bill Ritter and America-
Votes were letting people know which vote cen-
ters had shorter lines. They kept in touch with
volunteers at other polling places with cell
phones and pointed out the locations on maps.
Lots Of Issues, Lots Of Voters
Election officials expected a 60 percent turnout,
or about 1.8 million voters to participate in this
election. That includes more than 600,000 who
have already voted absentee or early.
The big reason for voter turnout was because of
the big interest in the mid-term election. Voters
were considering 14 statewide proposals and a
number of issues, including whether Democrats
will end up controlling the governor's office and
the Legislature.
That hasn't happened in more than 40 years,
when John F. Kennedy was president.
In the congressional races, Bob Beauprez's open
seat in suburban Denver was being sought by
Democrat Ed Perlmutter and Republican Rick
O'Donnell.
GOP Rep. Marilyn Musgrave faced a challenge
from Democrat Angie Paccione, while the seat
given up by 10-term Republican Rep. Joel He-
fley was the subject of a fierce battle between
Republican Doug Lamborn and Democrat Jay
Fawcett.
Fawcett received an e-mail death threat Monday
night, the third of the campaign, campaign
manager Wanda James said. James said the
most recent threat was reported to Colorado
Springs police. Police were investigating.
James also said someone sprayed a skunk odor
in Fawcett's headquarters overnight. The El Paso
County Republican Party said someone tried to
clog the plumbing at its Colorado Springs of-
fices.
Republicans are using the specter of Democratic
control to get their voters to the polls with the
argument that a divided government is better,
in terms of checks and balances.
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Ritter is facing Beauprez in a battle for the gov-
ernorship.
Early restults show Ritter leading the race. As
governor, Ritter could change the political dy-
namic in Colorado, particularly if Democrats
keep control of the state Senate and House,
something that worries many Republicans.
"I think they're very fearful of losing the gover-
nor's mansion and not being able to regain con-
trol of the state Legislature," said Norman
Provizer of Metro State College.
Republicans are reminded that Beauprez, if
elected, could keep the Democratic Legislature
in check.
"Colorado typically has kind of enjoyed that ten-
sion of divided government, and I think that's
part of what's causing this momentum to shift
our direction," said Beauprez.
"The whole landscape we think is important,
and it's not just our race, it's the entire land-
scape in Colorado," said Ritter. "We'll watch it
carefully."
Republicans have pointed out Gov. Bill Owens
vetoed nearly 100 bills while he was in office
and many of those bills could be reintroduced if
Democrats take control of the office. They said
some of those bills could be anti-business and
anti-family.
Copyright 2006 by TheDenverChannel.com. The
Associated Press contributed to this report. All
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