Is this how Adams County counts ballots?

Election Day and election night have come and gone and yet again Adams County was not up to the simple task of counting ballots.

• Scroll down to see the editor’s notes for the latest update on this story

Unable to complete their responsibilities, they headed home to bed and posted a notice on the county website saying “FINAL UNOFFICIAL POSTING FOR 11/3/09 – COUNTING TO RESUME ON 11/4/09.” 

Adams County is the only Denver metro area county that was unable to complete counting ballots and post final, unofficial results on election night. 

Here is how Adams County and the Clerk & Recorder performed compared to the other metro area counties:

* Adams County has not completed counting.  A notice on their website says they will resume counting on Wednesday morning.

So how is it that this kind of ineptitude is allowed to stand in our county government?  This is not the first time this has happened.  As we have discussed previously, this is an ongoing problem for the county.  Clerk & Recorder Karen Long doesn’t believe there is a problem having previously said, “To think you are going to get results the night of is ludicrous.”

No, Ms. Long, what is ludicrous is that Adams County can’t count and that the folks up in Brighton just don’t seem to care. 

Editor’s note, 8:10am - We have been told that the slowness of Adams County’s results is due to the fact their machines do not have a feeder tray and as such each ballot must me manually fed into the machine.  This explains the slowness but it also begs the question – Why does Adams County not have machines up to the task?  Obviously every other county does.

Editor’s note, 4:35pm – As of this writing, only one update has been posted to the county’s website and it says they are still counting.  I used the word ‘ineptitude’ in my subject line in an attempt to be somewhat diplomatic.  Scratch that.  Incompetence is probably a more fitting word at this point.  There is no way that given this is an off year election and there are relatively few ballots to count that counting should not have been completed by now.

The Results

It is pretty hard to discuss the election results since Adams County can’t complete counting in a timely fashion.  Presumably, if they can get out of bed this morning, we will have the results at some point later today. 

As of this writing, Mack Goodman, Val Vigil, Lynne Fox and Randy Drennen are leading in their respective city council ward races.  The Ward IV race between Drennen and Charles Stevenson is separated by only 45 votes at this time so that one is still very much in the air.  In the other races, those in the lead have a 200+ vote lead.

Adams County issue 1A unfortunately may be heading toward passing – no doubt aided by the deceptive ballot language that the Adams County Commissioners used. 

We’ll post an updated story later today once the final results are in.  In the meantime, you can monitor the progress of the counting by checking the county’s website.

Related:

• Adams County responds to slow election results (11/17/08)
• Adams County ballot counting brings up the rear – again (11/9/08)

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