An Elected Clerk is no solution

In 62 of the 64 counties in Colorado, an Elected Clerk is in charge of running elections. As this list shows, having an Elected Clerk does nothing to guarantee problem-free voting.

"The Montrose County Clerk and Recorder’s Office might have violated several election laws during preparations for the November election, according to a representative with the secretary of state’s office." more

"Douglas County's Election Day backups, which kept voters at some voting center in line until after 1 a.m., resulted from too few voting machines and too long a ballot, County Clerk Carole Murray said today." more

"In the wake of complaints from Montrose citizens and county officials about breakdowns in security and of voting machines as well as long delays at the polls in last week’s election, the Montrose Board of County Commissioners has called for an investigation, County Commissioner Bill Patterson said Tuesday." more

"El Paso County's top election official apologized Wednesday to those who waited up to several hours to vote after ballots ran short for Tuesday's election." more

"Pitkin County election officials counted approximately 1,200 phantom votes Tuesday night but it did not affect any outcomes of the election. The miscount affected just one of the county's 10 voting precincts - but it did so in a big way. more

Morgan County: "As the ballot-counting process was a timely one Tuesday night in the County administration building, county clerks experienced some mechanical shutdowns and scanning glitches which tacked on some extra time for when the election results were to be released." more

"Some voters in Arapahoe County said they never received their ballots. Folds in the ballots in Boulder County were also causing concern. Election workers said Monday they had a pretty good handle on the problems. The clerk's office in Boulder County was trying to make sure things went smoother than the last election when it took days to get the votes counted. The area of Arapahoe County where some ballots weren't received include voters in Bennett and a few blocks of west Centennial." more

"Many counties had problems with absentee ballots. Denver sent 13,000 ballots late, Saguache sent late ballots to nearly a third of that county's voters. Instructions on absentee ballots were wrong in several counties, including Denver and Adams. There were inexcusably long lines for early voting in many counties, where clerks have discretion to designate as many locations as they deem appropriate." more

"The head of a Denver company that printed ballots for Boulder County's troubled election acknowledged Tuesday he used a subcontractor who might have been responsible for the problems. Howard Harris, president of Eagle Direct, declined to name the subcontractor, saying his company is ultimately responsible for the work." more

There's nothing magical about an Elected Clerk. Competent election officials solve voting problems; incompetent officials don't.

The proposed charter change will do nothing to fix Denver's real problems, and will not ensure the competence of our election officials.