Adams County Clerk prepared to make the county, state and nation wait for election results
November 6th, 2012
While a county, state and nation wait for election results, the Adams County Clerk and Recorder will be soundly sleeping.
The ineptitude that is Adams County government has been shown repeatedly in recent years and past election cycles have shown a level of breathtaking incompetence in counting votes on Election Day. Despite recurring problems every year, Clerk and Recorder Karen Long has failed to rectify problems and now says she will make everyone wait for election results while she goes to bed.
There is little doubt that tonight’s election is going to be a close one nationally and particularly here in Colorado. Local county offices are entrusted with providing timely and accurate results – the single most important job they have.
Long however told the Denver Post yesterday that she will continue her office’s long standing practice of failing to do its job. Should counting not be completed by midnight, she and her workers will simply head off to bed and resume counting in the morning – all the while Adams County, the state and the nation will be awaiting results.
It is absolutely asinine that the county cannot count ballots quickly and efficiently. This is especially ludicrous when you consider that 80% of Adams County ballots have already been cast before today via mail in ballots and early voting. The clerk’s office should have those already counted thus leaving relatively few to actually count tonight.
In an editorial today the Post called out our clerk and a couple of others for their failure to do their duties properly.
“The drama of Colorado’s critical role in this election has hardly been a secret,” the Post editors write. “If many clerks were able to plan and organize their offices in order to keep counting ballots into the wee hours, why can’t all of them?”
Well, Adams County residents can of course answer that. We do things differently here. Governance by incompetence, greed and scandal is par for the course in Adams County. Democrats like Long ignore the people while failing to just do their job in an ethical manner.
Adams County has historically been one of the last counties in Colorado to finish counting ballots.
In 2008 it wasn’t until more than 24 hours after polls closed that Long posted final unofficial results. While every other Denver metro area county finished the night before, she famously said, “To think you are going to get results the night of is ludicrous.” Residents and area press were rightfully outraged.
In 2009 during an off-year election with far fewer ballots cast, Adams County was the last Denver area county to finish counting. Residents waited 23 hours to know the election’s outcome.
After two failures you would think Adams County would have gotten its act together but that simply was not the case. In 2010 the clerk failed to provide updates on the status of counting on its website and again residents waited and waited. Ironically Long actually won election that year despite her office’s incompetence.
Certainly in virtually any place else residents could count on their elected officials to correct problems like this. Here in Adams County we have come to expect the problems to continue. Sad isn’t it?
Karen Long doesn’t want to work any harder than fellow Democrat and former commissioner Larry Pace (he of the 22 hour workweek). Why must Adams County residents continue to suffer at the hands of these idiots?
Karen has worked long days many times to get the job done, and has worked harder than most county officials. When I took my class to be an election judge supervisor, the class didn’t end until 11 PM and she was there. She usually gets to the office at about 7 AM from what I understand. I think she works long hours. Have you asked her how much she works?
Most hard working people work long hours and do a good job – it should be expected, not something seen as out o f the ordinary. It doesn’t change the fact that her most important job comes around once a year and despite being in office a long time she can’t get it right or do it efficiently.
Steve, the answer to your question is because the majority of the Adams County residents continue to re-elect these idiots! In Texas, we call that a self-inflicted wound.
The Army sent me to FT Sam Houston in Texas for training. I may have to go for training again there. I sure will miss Colorado! I will be careful in Texas, because there seems to be a certain limited amount of intelligence given to the whole state, and it is really spread quite thin in spots.
I have met almost every candidate on the Democratic side, and they are well spoken, and very decent people. I haven’t met Dave Young yet…. but the Republicans didn’t bother to field a candidate for that office. So that race was pretty much a sure victory.
We now have an opportunity to get Texas out of the United States! There is a petition to the Whitehouse to remove Texas:
http://wh.gov/98n0
Since anyone who signs in can “sign” the petition, that means, if we come together as a nation, we can get rid of the Texas “Whole ‘nother country”.
Good GRIEF! What a bunch of egotistical, boneheaded, imbeciles! I have lived in three other states and none of them closed the counting down at midnight! The numerous reasons for the demise of government in Adams County and (the trend is not recent) begins and ends with “D”. Can you say Ciancio and Eppinger?
Hmmm 7:30 PM. Most votes counted and called. Great job Karen. Adams County Dems won all but 1 race. Good times coming for Adams County
I worked hard as an election judge supervisor during this election. I had some great Republicans, Democrats, and Students who worked with me. There were a lot of questions about paperwork, and I had one DRE machine that presented problems, and we worked through those problems, an made sure the votes on that machine got counted. I’ve also worked for the Denver election commission. My question is how do many counties call an election early? I think part of that is the large number of early votes. I don’t think it is a good idea to keep personnel up all night to count, as long as the ballots are secured. The overseas/military votes still had time to come in. What if those votes changed the election? It seems once an announcement is made, people get upset if it changes. Why not let the people counting get some sleep, and get a correct result by being well rested and able to do a good job. I’m not sure …. I didn’t see you working an 18 hour day helping voters on November 6th. We did have a possibility that we wouldn’t have enough Republicans, I e-mailed Patty McCoy, Chair of the Adams County Republicans, about that and she got the message out.
Where were you Tony?
Next time, Tony, I’d like to see some willingness to work together from you, and you might find that you would see the inside of the process, and you might have some valuable input about how the process could be better. Right now, you sound like you are complaining, but aren’t willing to roll up your sleeves and do the work to make things work.
I contribute to the community in far more significant ways than spending one day as a partisan election judge or lurking and commenting on other’s websites. Those contributions are well documented and go far beyond this website and make me more proud than anything I do related to politics. I do plenty thank you very much.