El Paso County precincts report fairly smooth ride

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Nov 3, 2004 | by PERRY SWANSON

Jeremy Burgoon was the last person to vote Tuesday in El Paso County, three hours after he got in line and two hours after the polls closed.

He didn't mind the wait.

"I just wanted to be able to vote," said Burgoon, 20, of Colorado Springs after voting at First Presbyterian Church downtown. "I'm proud to be out here today because I wanted to get the vote out for my age group."

With the exception of First Presbyterian, where voters had to wait four hours or more, Tuesday's election appeared to run smoothly at most of El Paso County's 181 polling places despite high turnout, some equipment problems and confusion over voting rules.

The polls closed at 7 p.m., but election workers continued accepting votes from people who got in line before then. Voters in the 20th Precinct at First Presbyterian were the last in the county to cast votes, finishing about 9 p.m. More than 66 percent of the county's 354,000 registered voters cast ballots, according to figures at midnight. The turnout in the 2000 presidential election was about 59 percent.

High turnout was the problem at First Presbyterian, where 791 people, many Colorado College students voting for the first time, faced long lines and frustration.

"Clearly there's been an effort to get students registered, and they're (precinct workers) not prepared," said Annie Collopy, 29, while waiting in line.

Many complained there were too few election judges.

"Once we got up to the table, we realized it was really disorganized," said Laura Cottingham, a CC student.

Attorneys for the Colorado Election Protection Coalition waited outside and asked many voters whether they experienced problems.

They said some voters reported they were improperly required to use a provisional ballot, which election workers verify in the days after an election.

By the end of the day, 62 voters at the 20th Precinct, or 8 percent, had been given provisional ballots.

One was Maria Leotta, 20, a CC junior from Wyoming. She had to use a provisional ballot because she did not have a Colorado driver's license.

She worried her vote would not be counted.

"It's just an outrage for people to come to a swing state to make sure our vote counts and it doesn't," she said.

Some suggested other motives behind the confusion.

"They kept questioning all our identifications," said Jocelyn Hallstein, 18, a CC student who waited almost five hours to vote. "Our school is predominately liberal, so that might have something to do with it."

Still, many voters said the hassles were worth it.

The voting was in the church's recreation building, and they took advantage of pool tables and free food and drinks. A few even brought guitars.

"It's not going to stop us from voting," said Christy Carey, another CC student.

Observers said very few voters left without voting.

El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink said his staff knew of the long wait but couldn't send help until other precincts closed at 7 p.m.

Turnout was high throughout the county. Voters waited as long as 90 minutes in some places, while others voted in five minutes.

One man reported a voting machine at Taylor Elementary School was not working in the morning.

An election judge reached Tuesday afternoon said a technician was called and the problem was quickly resolved.

"It was fantastic," said Brian Frilot, 25, who had just voted at Taylor. "I'm anxious about the outcome but not about the voting itself."

There were no lines or glitches at a sampling of polling places at Doherty High School, Wasson High School and Madison Elementary.

Election Judge Marilyn Canitz, who worked at Doherty, said they were swamped with voters early Tuesday. There was still a steady stream of voters in the afternoon but no lines.

The judges braced for the evening rush after voters got off work.

"It didn't take very long at all, just the time it took to fill out all the stuff," said Maia Swanson, who voted on the west side. "I'm excited because now I can go home and have dinner."

Despite coming to the polls at 6:30 p.m., Justin Haizley found the lines at Chipeta Elementary School to be much shorter than when he voted in the state elections two years ago.

"I was in there for five minutes tops. Last time I voted I came in the morning and the line was a lot longer," he said. "You'd expect the lines to be longer now, this late at night, but they're not."

A spokesman for Fair Vote Colorado, a Denver-based organization that educates voters on the process and acts as a watchdog, said the group received more than 13,000 calls on its help line Tuesday.

Many calls were complaints about a particular precinct, but most were from people wanting information.

"The problems overall have been spotty, more like bumps in the road," said Fair Vote spokesman Mark Eddy.

Some problems included election judges not knowing the rules on identification, and other judges being confused about the address on identifications not matching the address on the voter registration cards.

"Some voters in Boulder were turned away" when the addresses didn't match, Eddy said. "It just has to be a Colorado address."