Final votes are in

Myung Oak Kim and Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 8, 2007 at midnight

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Denver election workers finished counting ballots late Wednesday, essentially declaring victory for the ballot’s ninth and final bond measure approving a renovation for Boettcher Hall.

About 7,000 of the 94,000 ballots cast had been uncounted going into Wednesday evening.

But just after 10 p.m., election officials announced a final tally.

"All of the ballots have been run through the counting machines," according to a news release. "All that remains to be counted are approximately 2,000 ballots that will have to be duplicated.

"Please remember these results remain unofficial until the post-election audit and canvass of results are complete."

The release was from Elections Division spokesman Alton Dillard, who ended with the note: "Signing off after 40 straight hours, Alton."

The outcome also gives Arturo Jimenez a win in the Denver Public Schools District 5 race. His closest opponent was Tony Curcio, and the margin was just under 400 votes.

The city outcome means that voters approved all nine ballot issues backed by Mayor John Hickenlooper. The mayor had asked voters to approve a property tax increase to pay for ongoing maintenance of the city’s assets and $550 million in bond projects, from new libraries and rec centers to remodeling existing buildings. The proposal to redo Boettcher, a concert hall with poor layout and worse acoustics, was by far the most controversial of the issues.

The vote totals were delayed after problems surfaced Tuesday night, when the election staff became so backlogged that city officials called in police officers to help process ballots.

Clerk and Recorder Stephanie O’Malley blamed the delay on the 22,000 ballots received Tuesday.

The high number caught staff off-guard, she said, though she told a city committee Wednesday that her office was expecting up to 20,000 election day ballots.

The larger problem, she said, was a lack of space in the clerk and recorder’s office. The office was filled to capacity both Tuesday and Wednesday, with folding tables set up even in the lobby and a storage room late Tuesday.

That was enough space for 146 people to work. At that staffing level, workers could process about 1,000 ballots per hour — and fewer if the counting machine had trouble reading the ballots, said Michael Scarpello, director of elections,Scarpello said.

O’Malley said she has been in ongoing discussions with the city about space needs, though the exact amount of additional space required has not been determined.

"We know we need a lot more than what we have now," she said.

Numerous city officials and a former election commissioner said Wednesday the space crunch has been ignored for years.

It will become especially important in 2008, when the city will need "magnitudes" more people to help process and count ballots, O’Malley said.

The office already is looking at staffing options, from asking the private sector to recruiting college and possibly high school students, Scarpello said.

O’Malley said her office can complete the November 2008 tally in one day if she has enough workers and space.

Hickenlooper said he was not aware of the office’s space needs. But he noted it is an issue that can be fixed.

"I think the key here is to get everybody around the table," he said. "Last year we had problems with people casting their ballots. This year we had problems with people counting the ballots. Counting the ballots, that we can fix. That’s a function of machines and space and people. That we can take care of."

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