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By 2-to-1, Denver voters scrap city election panel

Denver's first-ever clerk and recorder to be elected May 1

Lou Kilzer, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 31, 2007 at midnight

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Denver residents gave the boot to the Denver Election Commission on Tuesday, voting by more than 2-to-1 to replace the beleaguered body with an elected clerk and recorder.

"I'm thrilled," said Denver City Councilwoman Rosemary Rodriguez, who championed the measure. "The people wanted a clear line of responsibility."

With only about 200 possibly mismarked ballots still to be counted, the tally was 36,199, or 68 percent, voting to dissolve the commission and 17,090, or 32 percent, voting to keep it.

The new clerk and recorder will be elected in the municipal election May 1, when Mayor John Hickenlooper stands for re-election and all 13 City Council seats are up. The existing election commission will run that vote and a June runoff, if one is necessary.

Karen Morrissey, who had been running for a spot on the commission, lamented the election results.

"I'm very disappointed," she said. "The change, by itself, doesn't fix any problems."

The result was not unexpected.

The commission suffered a series of gaffs leading up to the general election meltdown in November that propelled the movement to kill the commission.

The result was an unqualified victory for Rodriguez, who has been pushing for the change for more than a year.

There had previously been resistance by other members of the council and the mayor.

Then came November.

Voters waited in lines for hours to cast a ballot, and results weren't known for weeks.

In the aftermath, the single appointed member of the commission, Clerk and Recorder Wayne Vaden, resigned, as did the commission's executive director, John Gaydeski.

Hickenlooper signed on to the change, though he had favored a single commissioner appointed by the City Council.

Tuesday's results "will restore confidence in Denver's electoral system," Hickenlooper said.

Among other issues opponents cited was the cost of a special election - more than $600,000.

Now the question becomes who will become the city's first elected clerk and recorder, an official who will have 15 months to prepare for the August 2008 presidential primary.

One possible candidate is Stephanie O'Malley, the person Hickenlooper appointed as clerk and recorder after Vaden stepped down. O'Malley, former Mayor Wellington Webb's daughter, said she will make her decision "fairly quickly."

She said neither her appointment by Hickenlooper nor her relation to the former mayor would give her a leg up.

"I have to stand on my own two feet," she said. "I will be judged like any other."

Current Commissioner Susan Rogers said she was not surprised or particularly disappointed in the result.

She said she favored a single person to take care of elections, because running it by committee was not effective.

She just didn't want the person running it to be the clerk and recorder, who will have many other responsibilities.

City Auditor Dennis Gallagher, who has been critical of the election commission, said he was ecstatic.

"We're going to have a little more direct democracy in Denver," he said.

Charter change

"A proposed amendment to the Charter of the City and County of Denver providing for the direct election of the Clerk and Recorder; defining the powers and duties of the Clerk and Recorder including the power to conduct elections; and repealing provisions related to the Election Commission."

For 68%

Against 32%What's next

• On May 1 Denver voters will elect a clerk and recorder, along with a mayor and 13 members of the City Council. This election, and any June runoff, if necessary, will be the last vote conducted by the election commission.

How did it come to this?

The Denver City Council called for Tuesday's special election after a dismal year at the Denver Election Commission:

• June 9, 2006 The commission acknowledges losing a filing cabinet containing sensitive information on more than 150,000 voters when it moved to a new building in February.

• Aug. 8 Trouble with voting machine card activators causes confusion at some polling places during the primary election. The problem is blamed on inadequate training of election workers.

• Oct. 11 Sequoia Voting Systems, Denver's voting machine contractor, says it is sending letters to 44,000 voters warning of a mistake on absentee ballots after it's discovered that the "yes" and "no" boxes on a ballot question are transposed.

• Oct. 12 Sequoia miscalculates return postage for thousands of absentee ballots, understating the required postage by 24 cents.

• Oct. 30 A race for an open seat on the Regional Transportation District Board of Directors fails to appear on absentee ballots. The secretary of state's office is blamed for the error, but city election officials acknowledge their failure to catch the omission.

• Nov. 2 Failure of software use to check voters' registration status leads to hours of long waits to vote in Denver. An estimated 18,000 to 20,000 voters abandon the lines and go home without voting.

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