Multi-Page Ballot Has County Recorder Scrambling Before Nov. 4 Election

SAN MIGUEL COUNTY – Because this November’s election is so large on the local, state and national levels, the Colorado Secretary of State notified San Miguel County Clerk and Recorder Peggy Nerlin last week that the county’s eScan voting devices should be upgraded once again. The upgrades need to occur sometime within the eight weeks remaining before the Nov. 4 election – a task that has Nerlin scrambling in the 11th hour.

“I am trying to keep a sense of humor,” Nerlin said at Wednesday’s San Miguel Board of County Commissioners meeting. Nerlin told the commissioners that she had received an email from the Colorado Department of State’s legal specialist on Saturday, Sept. 30 notifying her that State Secretary Mike Coffman has temporarily certified Hart Voting System version 6.2.1 for use in Colorado, which is an upgrade from version 6.0, the version the county currently uses for its voting machines.

The reason for the upgrade? As of today there are 13 presidential candidates, 13 initiatives and four referendums on the ballot with two more initiatives awaiting determination of sufficiency. This does not include elections at the county level. This November’s ballot will have multiple pages, or “orphan ballots,” and the newer 6.2.1 version “will allow for easier processing of multiple page ballots on your eScan voting devices,” stated the email from Coffin’s office.

Although it is up to each individual county to decide if they will upgrade their systems, Nerlin said she is taking the State’s advice considering November’s seemingly complicated election. The three commissioners agreed.

“Hart strongly recommends that we upgrade because of the complexities of the election,” Nerlin said in an interview after the meeting “I feel like it will be so complex to do it with 6.0 that we needed to move forward and do it.” The decision needed to be made by Thursday so the State and Hart could schedule the upgrades.

The county has 18 voting machines that will need the upgrades. Nerlin said that Hart officials usually come to San Miguel County to service the machines but she is worried that San Miguel County may be left until the last moment.

“I feel like because of our location, we are one of the last in the state to get upgrades,” she said. With that, Nerlin said she is trying to figure out a way to load up the machines into a couple of trucks or vans and actually take them to another location to make sure the upgrades occurs before the election.

“I am going to take a proactive stance and go to a centralized location,” Nerlin said. “I don’t want to impact my calendar right now, things are too tight as it is. I have spoken with Dolores and Ouray [counties] to combine efforts… so it can be done efficiently.” The cost of the temporary upgrade will be somewhere around $1,500. The cost of the complete upgrade, scheduled to be completed by Aug. 2009, is still unknown.

“How many times are we going to get something like this at the 11th hour here?” Commissioner Joan May asked at the meeting.

“It makes sense to move forward with this but the thing for every clerk is the timing,” Nerlin said. “I don’t know what else to do but move forward and make the best of it.”

Indeed, Nerlin has a busy schedule leading up to the November election and she has already been planning to make sure the election goes as smoothly as possible. According to a Sept. 1 press release, Nerlin’s office is taking steps to involve younger citizens in the election process.

“Along with our older, seasoned judging staff, we are recruiting new, young judges – people in their 20s and 30s – to learn the election process,” Nerlin stated. “We are also introducing a new program this year for student judges. We will have one student judge from Precinct 4 in Norwood and one from Telluride High School for Precinct 1.”

Nerlin’s office is also using the new “SCORE” statewide online voter registration system to verify voters and their signatures. An emergency plan is also in place should some form of trouble arise at any of the county’s precincts on election day, and enough paper ballots are available for all county voters in the event of a power outage.

All 5,800 county voters will receive an informational letter and brochure prior to the election. Voters may choose the traditional election-day voting option or take advantage of early and mail-in voting instead. Already, more than 1,300 voters have opted for the mail-in ballots this year.

Those with questions or concerns about the upcoming election can contact Nerlin at 728-3954 or email at peggyn@sanmiguelcounty.org.