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Steady stream of voters on last day of registration

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 6, 2008 at 1 p.m.
Updated October 6, 2008 at 7:43 p.m.

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Tom Sirbu, 34, fills out a voter registration form at the Denver Elections Division office.

Photo by Darin McGregor © The Rocky

Tom Sirbu, 34, fills out a voter registration form at the Denver Elections Division office.

Anthony McCune looks over Anne Parent's voter registration form as he helps her register for the first time at the Denver Elections Division office on Monday.

Photo by Darin McGregor © The Rocky

Anthony McCune looks over Anne Parent's voter registration form as he helps her register for the first time at the Denver Elections Division office on Monday.

Frank Mills, 27, fills out a voter registration form. Mills said he did not register for mail-in, but intends to go stand in line to vote with the majority of Americans on election day.

Photo by Darin McGregor © The Rocky

Frank Mills, 27, fills out a voter registration form. Mills said he did not register for mail-in, but intends to go stand in line to vote with the majority of Americans on election day.

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Thousands rush to register to vote at the last minute

Monday was the busiest day since the 2004 election for many county election offices as thousands of people scrambled to meet the voter registration deadline.

The Denver elections office lobby filled up as soon as the doors opened at 8 a.m. People took numbers and waited to be called to the counter, where eight workers handled up to 100 people an hour for much of the day.

Officials decided just after 4 p.m. to keep the doors open an additional two hours, until 7 p.m., to accommodate the last-minute rush of people wanting to register to vote, sign up for a mail ballot or update their registration.

The Denver Elections office received more than 6,000 registration or mail ballot applications from voter drives alone on Monday. More than 95,000 forms have been received in Denver since May.

At Arapahoe County elections headquarters in Littleton, 13 employees staffed the phones all day. Clerk and Recorder Nancy Doty said more than 1,000 people called, about 500 people went to the office and 800 people sent in forms by fax.

"It's unbelievable," Doty said. "This is the busiest day since Election Day of '04."

Hundreds of people showed up at the Weld County elections office and even more people called with last-minute questions, said Clerk and Recorder Steve Moreno.

"The phone was ringing off the hook," he said. "It sounds like Las Vegas in here."

The bustle at elections offices was the latest sign of intense interest in the presidential election. Officials in some major Colorado counties are predicting higher than 90 percent turnout.

Mail voting starts this week and Election Day is Nov. 4.

The recent flood of new forms will delay a final count of registered voters in the largest counties for up to two weeks, election officials said. Counties must have their voter list finished before Oct. 20, when early voting begins.

Many of the new voters have been signed up through registration drives. The most active have been those launched by the Barack Obama campaign, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), and others that target minority and young voters.

ACORN, working with a national group called Project Vote, signed up 1.3 million voters in 21 states - more than in any recent election, officials said Monday. That includes about 70,000 Colorado voters. At 3 p.m., Rachel Chaparro dropped off almost 300 forms at the Denver office. She works for the Latina Initiative, which has been signing up Latino voters. She said her group will deliver or mail 600 to 700 forms in a half-dozen counties. It has signed up 5,500 to 5,700 people in all.

Even though the crowds were large at the Denver Elections office, lines moved quickly.

Lacie McGlothlin, 27, said she was "terrified" in the morning because she thought registering to vote would be a long, chaotic process. But she said it only took about four minutes to get in and out of the door.

"It was awesome," said the waitress who moved from Michigan to Denver two months ago. "It was quick and the people were pretty friendly."

Many voters said they drove to the office just to make sure their registration information was correct.

Comments

  • October 6, 2008

    2:34 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    INC writes:

    VOTE DEMOCRATIC!!!!!
    your county clerk can be found on the second page of the voter registration form here...

    http://www.elections.colorado.gov/adm...

    Your Voter registration/absentee ballot application, MUST be in by 5pm today!

  • October 6, 2008

    3 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    boardbike writes:

    Talking about radical ties.

    McCain and Charles Keating (watch the video):
    http://keatingeconomics.com/

  • October 6, 2008

    3:09 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    COGrownFarmBoy writes:

    Shaggy,

    Sorry after the job that Bush/Cheney have done to our economy and in the hopes that someday maybe I will be able to retire, it is time for someone other than a Republican to be President.

    Big Oil and the wealthy have done well for the last 8 years...it is time for someone to think about the rest of us.

    If the Republican Party would just go back to being fiscally responsible and support a balanced budget then they could get my support but tax cuts for the rich at the expense of a larger deficit isn't the way to go.

    I don't like everything the Democrats want to do but at least it is a change from the failed policies of the past 8 years and when McCain bought off the Religious Right by selecting Palin he pretty much sealed my vote for Obama.

  • October 6, 2008

    3:22 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    j_jetson_s writes:

    If you make less than $250K a year, your taxes will be substantially lower with Obama as President than McCain.

    You can't just attach "higher taxes" to all Democrats. Do your research.

  • October 6, 2008

    4:07 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    denverinfidel writes:

    We all know the congressional republicans and bush have completely screwed up any semblance of conservatism in their own party (and are about to pay for it again).

    But anyone who believes a liberal president and a liberal congress will cut your taxes is certifiably high. Tax rates are a very clear difference between right and left. One of the first things bush did was cut income taxes (conservatism 101). One of the first things obama will do is raise them (liberalism 101). Along with payroll and cap gains taxes.

    j_jetson, please elaborate on what exactly is meant by "substantial"? All that means is obama is willing to lie more than mccain on tax policy (because they are both lying).

    40% of working americans pay no federal income tax. The top 1% pays over a third of all receipts, the top 10% pays over 70%, and 97% of the bill is paid by the top half. Yes, its true. 50% of working americans pay 97% of all fed income taxes. And all you ignorant socialists wet your panties because you think you're getting a tax cut when bambi takes office and "soaks the rich".

    We have an extremely top-heavy federal tax code, and all we hear is the rich get away with murder. The economic ignorance in this country that both sides is willing to swallow is astounding.

    http://www.ntu.org/main/page.php?Page...

    The evil bush tax cuts will expire, and then you will have an automatic tax increase at every brackett. And they won't be lowered by a president obama. Yet that is somehow a "tax cut for 95% of working americans"?

  • October 6, 2008

    5 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    INC writes:

    denverinfidel,
    in reality Because of the last 8 years and the "buyout",
    No matter whom is in charge. Taxes have to go higher if only to pay the massive debt republicans inflicted upon us.

    McSame actually would tax us twice on the same dollar.

    At least Democrats are honest about it.

    As Under Obama's proposed tax plan 95% of Americans will have some sort of tax cut. whilst the wealthy get to pay their fare share once again. (same percentage as under Regan)

  • October 6, 2008

    5:09 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rage_against_the_stupid writes:

    Why is it that the Democrats always need to have; the voting booths open later, the Denver Elections Division open later, the day you foreclose on your house open later..... I see a trend-

  • October 6, 2008

    6:27 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rickg19611 writes:

    "Under Obama's proposed tax plan 95% of Americans will have some sort of tax cut"

    Yeah.... a 10 cent tax cut, combined with a $3,000 a year involuntary contribution from each taxpayer to the government = an Obama tax cut!!!!

    Intelligent people recognize that Obama has NEVER explained how this mysterious tax "cut" will happen. Because even Obama knows that he has no clue how he can do it.

    Or maybe Joe Biden hasn't reached that part of the lesson plan for his "learning as fast as he can" student named Obama.

  • October 6, 2008

    7:32 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    joggle writes:

    rickg19611: "combined with a $3,000 a year involuntary contribution from each taxpayer to the government = an Obama tax cut!!!!"

    Care to back that up with a reputable source? I just did some google searching and couldn't find a reference to it, meaning that rather than typical BS it's highly unusual (and even more highly false) BS.

    The only thing I can even GUESS that you are referring to is the bailout bill that was passed that would cost $2,300 for every man, woman and child in the country. If you're referring to that then McCain voted for that as well.

  • October 6, 2008

    10:15 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Mike846 writes:

    I just love the one reference above to McCain-Keating. McCain was the only one of the five totally exonerated from ANY involvement, and the prosecutor who exonerated him was the same guy who later defended Bill Clinton for lying under oath. Even the New York Times (you can look it up) said that McCain was totally innocent. Of course, we can bet ACORN is registering every wino they can, and in Denver, anyone with a utility bill. Boss Tweed of the crooked Democrat Tammany Hall must be laughing his rear-end off in his grave; the Democrat Party has taken ballot box stuffing to new lows. Voters, look what the Democrats have done to your schools. Look how they selectively enforce the laws to pander to illegal aliens, with two tiers of justice, one for the citizen and one for the illegal. Look at how your tax burden and fees for services have been raised under a Democratic mayor, city council, state house and Governor. Just take the time to look, and think, and then VOTE. Throw them out of office, and things will START to change. VOTE against more taxes, for any supposed cause; VOTE Republican and throw the rascals out. Mike