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Judging by numbers, it's a go

County clerks confident they're set for big day

By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News (Contact), Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 29, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Awilda Marquez, Ginger White and Kelly Vigil, from left, listen to Jerome Cooper lead an election supervisors training session at a Denver Elections Division office. Denver Elections officials are confident they have more than enough judges to staff polling places on Election Day.

Photo by Matt Mcclain / The Rocky

Awilda Marquez, Ginger White and Kelly Vigil, from left, listen to Jerome Cooper lead an election supervisors training session at a Denver Elections Division office. Denver Elections officials are confident they have more than enough judges to staff polling places on Election Day.

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Several metro-area county clerks were confident Tuesday that they will have more than enough election judges to staff all their polling places on Election Day.

In Denver, Elections Director Michael Scarpello said the city has nearly 2,000 election judges trained, well above the 1,850 that will be needed Tuesday.

"We're overstaffing," Scarpello said.

Denver will have a bank of extra judges who will report on Election Day ready to fill in where needed, he said.

Douglas County Clerk Jack Arrowsmith said about 950 election judges have been trained in that county so far.

He said county officials believe they have enough judges to fill in for any no-shows as well.

"Every year we have people who go to training, assure us they'll be there and then life happens to them," Arrowsmith said.

He said a number of judges will not be given specific assignments but will be kept in reserve on the "bench" and sent wherever they are needed on Election Day.

In Boulder County, elections spokeswoman Jessica Cornelius said about 1,400 judges have completed training - more than enough for Election Day.

In Denver, election judges can make $100 on Election Day, plus another $20 for attending a training class.

Election supervisors can make $170 on Election Day, plus another $60 for attending two classes and picking up and delivering ballots.

On Tuesday, a class of 12 new supervisors took a two-hour training class that attempts to prepare them for anything and everything that could go wrong on Election Day.

The lessons range from what to do when the landlord fails to open a polling place on time to how to deal with people who cannot provide any of the required identification.

Trainer Jerome Cooper explained to the class exactly what documents go where and how to seal ballot boxes when a security team arrives to pick them up.

The class is a sort of Worst Case Scenario 101.

"What if there's a blizzard?" one judge asked Cooper.

Call headquarters for instructions, he replied.

Supervisors are issued a 100- foot-long ball of string so they can measure off a boundary line outside polling places. Any electioneering must remain outside that boundary.

Most judges say they're doing the work out of a sense of civic duty.

The job requires that they stay at the polling station for the entire day except for bathroom breaks.

Smoke breaks are not allowed, trainer Tom Mann explained.

"This may be a good time to quit smoking," he said.

ensslinj@RockyMountainNews.com or 202-954-5291