Council questions why 14 ballots not counted

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), May 7, 2003 | by ED SEALOVER

Colorado Springs City Clerk Kathryn Young said Tuesday that 14 ballots cast in the April 1 municipal election were not counted, prompting questions from City Council members about why this happened and when Young knew.

The 14 ballots are not enough to change the results of any of the seven council races or tax-extension question. The closest contest, Scott Hente's victory over Tim Oliver in District 1, was decided by 1,679 votes.

Because of that, several council members said Friday they are not worried about the new information tainting the election.

What concerned some officials was the amount of time it took Young to inform them of the error. A memo sent from the clerk to the council said the ballots were found April 17; she did not discuss them with any council members until May 1.

"If somebody knew about it that long ago, I think somebody should ask for an explanation of why we weren't informed," Councilman Jerry Heimlicher said.

Young could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

Outgoing council members certified the results of the city's first allmail-ballot mayoral election April 15. Two days later, while preparing ballots for storage, a clerk's employee found a tray of 14 that had not been tallied.

Those 14 originally were challenged for discrepancies such as an invalid signature or missing birth date. Upon review, they were approved for counting, according to a city news release.

The May 5 memo said someone left the ballots inside the tray, with a note on them saying they were OK to process.

Councilwoman Margaret Radford said this information was passed to her recently, and she told Mayor Lionel Rivera, who talked to Young.

Young said in the memo she was talking with the El Paso County election department about how to handle the situation. Rivera said she told him she also worked with the Colorado Secretary of State's Office.

Young said in a news release she plans to reconvene the board that canvassed the election and amend results.

Rivera defended the clerk, noting 14 votes are a miniscule number of the 81,709 cast.

"When you're processing that many ballots and you have people processing it, people make mistakes," he said.

Council members have more questions, however, including what safeguards are in place for the future and why Young waited to come forward with the information.

Councilman Randy Purvis said they are likely to question her further at Monday's council meeting.

"I think the issue for me is a fair, clean election is a sacred right," Radford said.

"So the timeline is something we'll be looking at and process is something we'll be looking at."