23 hours after polls close, Adams County finally has results
November 5th, 2009
Our ever-efficient (NOT!) county government finally finished counting ballots at 6:00pm on Wednesday – 23 hours after polls closed. The county had fewer ballots to count than the majority of Denver area counties and yet somehow managed to take four times as long as the next slowest.
Various excuses are making the rounds for the failure of the Adams County Clerk & Recorder to post timely and accurate counts. Apparently the county’s vote counting machines do not have a sheet feeder so they must be manually fed into the machine. Further, election results for the rest of the county were held up while the Clerk & Recorder manually tabulated write-in results for one of Northglenn’s races.
The posting of results was so slow that the Colorado Secretary of State got involved and made a phone call to Adams County inquiring as to why it was not finished. This of course is not the first time the county has brought up the rear and yet they don’t seem to think there is anything wrong with it. Certainly now that the county commissioners have the opportunity to seek a third term, this failure in leadership to properly handle one of our most important rights should be addressed when they come up for re-election.
As for the results, change is the big word again in this election cycle, even at the local level. All four seats that were up for grabs on Thornton City Council have new representatives as Mack Goodman, Val Vigil, Lynne Fox and Randy Drennen won their races. Congratulations to all four. We hope all serve with the same distinction that most past city councilmembers have and remember to set aside personality conflicts and always do what is right for the city and its citizens.
Being an off-year election, voter turnout out was low as only 24.72% of registered voters in Adams County cast ballots. To think that 7 out of 10 voters couldn’t be troubled to fill in a few dots and put a stamp on an envelope is absolutely reprehensive. Those that didn’t vote apparently don’t care about the direction of the city and county.
Men and women have fought and died for the right to vote – indeed it was one of the primary reasons this great nation came into existence. Those of you who failed to perform this simple civic duty dishonor them, their memory and this country and you should be ashamed.
[...] 23 hours after polls close, Adams County finally has results [...]
[...] the 2008 election weren’t posted by Adams County until 25 hours after polls closed. Last year the county reported results 23 hours after polls closed taking four times as long as the next slowest metro area [...]
[...] November 2009 – Still waiting for election results. Election Day once again brings problems in Adams County as the county is the only metro area county unable to complete its vote counting on election night. In the end it takes Clerk and Recorder Karen Long’s office 23 hours to post final results, a showing that is so dismal the Colorado Secretary of State’s office calls the county on election night to find out what the problem is. (Source) [...]