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Dem optimistic about regent seat

Provisional ballot counts slow results for at-large post

Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 22, 2006 at midnight

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More than two weeks after the election, Democrat Stephen Ludwig thinks he will be the next University of Colorado regent-at-large - but he's still not sure.

Slow vote counts in Denver and Boulder have delayed the final results in Ludwig's close contest with Republican Brian Davidson.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," Ludwig, who is awaiting the final count of provisional ballots in Boulder County, said Tuesday.

Ludwig has been keeping a running tally and believes he is leading Davidson by 6,000 votes. Ludwig led Davidson by a large margin in heavily Democratic Denver, but he feared the thousands of Denver voters who walked away in frustration from long lines on Election Day might have cost him the victory.

Denver's Election Day fiasco triggered the resignation of the city's appointed clerk and recorder and the suspension of the Denver Election Commission's technology chief. A panel is now investigating what went wrong and is expected to call for a complete overhaul of Denver's election process.

Under federal law, voters are allowed to cast provisional ballots if it's not clear they are registered to vote. After the election, those ballots are evaluated to determine if they should be counted.

Several thousand provisional ballots were cast Nov. 7. Most counties have finished counting their provisional ballots, but Denver and Boulder didn't complete their counts until Tuesday. Under state law, they had to finish counting those ballots by Nov. 21, but they aren't required to release final vote totals until next week.

Denver and Boulder each received about 3,000 provisional ballots.

"We are finishing up," said Carrie Haverfield of the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder's Office. "All the provisional ballots have been processed."

Haverfield said Boulder officials hope to have final election results available today.

The Denver Election Commission Web site said that all provisional ballots had been tallied by the end of the day Tuesday and that vote totals were complete.

Ludwig believes the final statewide tally will show him ahead, but he's still not sure if it will be close enough to trigger an automatic recount. If his margin is less than 7,000 votes, a recount would take place.

"If it's within one half of one percent there will be an automatic recount," he said.

If the vote totals are released this week and show him with a clear lead, Ludwig says he will declare victory. Otherwise, he'll wait for the results of the recount.

He said his life has been up in the air, wondering if he won the election.

"It's been hard to make future plans," said Ludwig, a communications consultant. "Regent is a nonpaying job and requires 40 to 50 hours a month. That's been the biggest challenge."

Timetable

Key dates for reporting election results in Colorado:

Nov. 21: Last day to verify and count provisional ballots

Nov. 27: Last day for county clerks to submit returns to the secretary of state

Dec. 1: Last day for the secretary of state to compile returns from all counties and order recounts, if any.