Denver voters seethe in lines

Hickenlooper offers apology for botched system, long delays

Ann Imse, Lou Kilzer, James Meadow And Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 8, 2006 at midnight

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By the end of Denver's disastrous Election Day, an embattled Mayor John Hickenlooper was personally apologizing to voters waiting in long lines and leaping to accept his critics' calls for an investigation into a computer system that failed.

"I'm here groveling and apologizing on behalf of a grateful city for all of you sticking it out," he told Erik Halgrimson and other voters still waiting inside the vote center at Augustana Lutheran Church nearly two hours after the doors had closed.

Officials and voters blamed the mayor and the city election commission for a computer failure that slowed and repeatedly halted checks of voter registration. That created long lines that snaked around vote centers, discouraging some would-be voters who gave up and went home.

Early in the day, Democratic lawyers appealed to a state judge to extend voting hours, but the judge refused, saying she didn't have jurisdiction.

"This has been the most frustrating day since I was mayor," said Hickenlooper at the 12th vote center he'd visited Tuesday - a day he called "catastrophic."

"I don't control the election commission. They don't report to me, but by the end of tomorrow, they may wish they did. Trust me, it will never happen again."

Denver legislators called for an investigation of the election commission, and Hickenlooper immediately agreed.

"We want that place turned inside out," said State Rep. Alice Borodkin, D-Denver.

"We want to find out everything that happened."

Hickenlooper appoints the commission's sole full-time member, County Clerk Wayne Vaden, though not its two part-time elected members, Sandy Adams and Susan Rogers.

An embarrassed Vaden also promised an investigation.

"I am walking with a heavy heart," he said. "I heard that a lot of voters walked out" without being able to vote.

"That should not have happened."

Rogers also apologized.

Computers froze

The election commission placed only four laptops for checking voter registration at each of the city's voting centers. Those laptops, which were connected to a central database, slowed to a crawl and froze completely at least twice.

Denver switched this year from 200 small polling places to 55 vote centers where anyone from around the city could cast a ballot. That meant election judges could no longer use small printed lists of eligible voters in their small precincts.

Instead, they had to check an electronic list of all of the city's 350,000 voters.

Around 6 p.m., five of the most crowded vote centers were not functioning at all, according to FairVoteColorado, which took thousands of calls from frustrated voters. At 6:30 p.m., 500 were in line at Green Valley, and 420 were waiting at Montbello, said City Council member Rosemary Rodriguez.

The computerized voting machines, much-criticized before election night for being too vulnerable to tampering, stood empty because voters could not get to them.

"I'm completely outraged," said Dr. Cecile Rose, 52, who was waiting in line at the Denver Botanic Gardens on Tuesday night.

"It's an attack on the American system. Hickenlooper needs to be accountable."

Joan Betz, 60, said her husband opted not to vote because the line was too long.

"It's like a third world country," Betz said, looking at the crowd in front of her.

Moments later, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter - who had waited an hour and 45 minutes to vote himself earlier in the day - swept through the garden's main gate to encourage voters waiting in the Democratic stronghold.

"I'm just saying, please don't leave," Ritter said.

Many vote centers ran out of provisional ballots because election officials gave them to voters who weren't willing to wait in long lines.

Those ballots were in such short supply in Denver that voters at the Tivoli Vote Center used yellow sample ballots to mark their choices.

At Highlands Senior Center, some people had to use the wrong provisional ballots, so they didn't get to vote in some races in their precincts.

Denver finally finished voting at 10:30 p.m., three and a half hours after the polls closed. Everyone who was in line at 7 p.m. had the right to cast a ballot.

'Bureaucratic incompetence'

Tuesday afternoon, Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher sent a scathing letter to Election Commission Director John Gaydeski. He said the right to vote was "being denied in Denver today through bureaucratic incompetence, indifference or worse."

Since the summer, Gallagher has sent repeated letters to the commission, the mayor and the City Council warning of impending disaster in the election. In June, he warned that the electronic poll book still was not complete and had not been tested. It was this electronic poll book that repeatedly failed on Tuesday.

Hickenlooper said Tuesday that he and his staff have met with the commission at least weekly to stave off problems, which he thought had been solved.

He authorized an extra $800,000 to deal with the issues and persuaded the commission to add seven vote centers.

Council president Rosemary Rodriguez, a former county clerk and member of the commission, has been pushing for changes in election oversight for years.

But "the mayor didn't support anything but the status quo," she said.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, of Denver, said she told the mayor after problems in the primary, "There are serious potential problems that need to be addressed.

"Frankly he didn't seem very concerned," DeGette said.

Hickenlooper said he did not recall the conversation with DeGette.

There was another warning just a few days ago, when former Mayor Wellington Webb and his wife Wilma went to vote early and the voter registration system crashed just as they reached the head of the line.

Hickenlooper said the server crashed for a different reason that day.

The problems did not end when the polls closed - counting the votes also dragged.

One of the city's two optical scanners failed, slowing the count of absentee ballots. Election commission spokesman Alton Dillard said less than half of 70,000 absentees had been counted by 11:30 p.m., and the rest might not be finished for 24 to 48 hours because the city needs a part from the manufacturer.

Breaking it down

The three-member Denver Election Commission consists of two elected members and the Denver clerk and recorder. The panel conducts elections, educates voters, buys election equipment, interprets rules and decides election disputes.

• WAYNE VADEN

Position: Denver clerk and recorder, appointed by mayor.

Salary: $95,154 annually.

Bio: Vaden previously worked as an assistant city attorney for the city and county of Denver, an assistant attorney general for Colorado, and as a private practitioner at Vaden & Evans LLC. Wayne serves on the boards of numerous community and legal organizations and coaches track for the Montbello Lady Warriors.

• SANDY ADAMS

Position: Commissioner, elected to four-year term in May 2003.

Salary: $13,680 annually.

Bio: Adams, a CPA, previously was a commissioner from 1991 to 1995. She has lived in Denver for 30 years. She served on a commission for Mayor Federico Peña studying low-income housing and was appointed by Gov. Roy Romer to Colorado Environment 2000 to establish environmental goals for the state.

• SUSAN ROGERS

Position: Commissioner, elected to four-year term in May 2003.

Salary: $13,680 annually.

Bio: Rogers is a Denver-area native with a degree in history and anthropology from the University of Colorado. A longtime volunteer political activist, Rogers works as a Realtor for Keller Williams Denver Central.

imsea@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5438

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