Audit of Special Election Ballots Shows Results are Accurate

by Rachel Carter, Longmont Times-Call

published 02/01/2008

Election judges called out the names as they began counting 2,800 ballots Thursday morning to make sure electronic results from Boulder County’s ballot-counting machines are accurate.

The Boulder County Clerk and Recorder’s Office audited 20 percent of the ballots cast in Longmont’s special election to compare hand counts to the electronic tally from the county’s decertified ballot machines.

The results of Tuesday’s special election weren't close: With 55 percent of the vote, Gabe Santos beat out Richard Juday, Trisa Baxter and Dan Orner.

But the Longmont City Council had asked the county to audit 20 percent of ballots to assure residents their votes counted.

"They’re doing this at our request, just to give folks confidence in the system," Longmont City Clerk Valeria Skitt said.

Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall offered to audit 10 percent of ballots twice the 5 percent the state requires to calm any concerns after Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified the county's ballot machines in December.

But the Longmont City Council, at Councilman Brian Hansen’s urging, asked the county to audit 20 percent of ballots four times what the state requires.

"It is unique to have it that high," Hall said, adding later, "But the point of doing an audit is so there is no question."

Working in two-person teams, 14 election judges counted paper ballots by hand and compared those results with the electronic tally from the county’s ballot-scanning machines, said Jessie Cornelius, spokeswoman for the Clerk and Recorder’s Office.

Election officials recorded smaller batches than usual on Election Night - 100 ballots per batch - on memory sticks in the ballot machines. County employees then sorted the 13,961 paper ballots that voters returned into batches of 100.

Officials randomly selected 28 batches of paper ballots to compare to electronic results from the ballot machines.

Of the 2,798 ballots that election judges counted Thursday, results from the hand count matched results from the ballot machines exactly - except for one ballot, which officials determined was a difference in election judges’ decisions, not a mechanical error.

Election judges on Tuesday night counted one ballot as an overvote,"Meaning there was a mark in more than one candidate spot," Skitt said.

On Thursday, election judges counted that ballot as a vote for one candidate, Skitt said.

"It was a decision by humans, not an error," Skitt said.

Election judges spent most of Thursday sorting and counting ballots. The county plans to certify the election results next week, Cornelius said.

The city contracted with the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder's Office to prepare and count ballots in the special election to fill the vacant City Council seat.

County and city officials don’t yet know the exact cost of the special election, although the audit likely added to the bill, Skitt said.