Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Despite authorization to purchase 20 new electronic voting machines for the 2007 election, Routt County will work with the same number of machines it had in 2006, when hours-long lines at polling locations landed the county on the state's Election Watch List.

Routt County Clerk Kay Weinland said the county is unable to purchase the new machines - which would raise the county's total number from 35 to 55 - because of delays the Colorado Secretary of State's office has experienced in attempts to recertify voting equipment.

"I got authorization to purchase, but we are not purchasing them because of a delay in certification," Weinland said Thursday.

While the county's current equipment may be used in this year's election, Weinland said the county is not allowed to purchase new equipment until the recertification is complete. In 2006, the Denver Distirct Court ruled that the Secretary of State's office must retest voting equipment that was certified earlier that year.

Dana Williams, a spokeswoman for Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman, confirmed that Colorado counties cannot move forward with voting equipment purchases.

"All voting equipment in Colorado has to be certified by the Secretary of State's office," Williams said. "Clerks cannot purchase any new equipment until certification is complete."

According to documents available on the Colorado Secretary of State's Web site, the office planned to have certification complete by July 2006. The same documents say the projected completion date for the recertification process is Oct. 1, but Weinland said she has been told the process may not be complete until December.

"This office understands the difficult position this puts county clerks and recorders in," the Secretary of State's documents state.

Williams blamed the delays on voting machine vendors failing to provide all the information required to complete the certification process. Colorado's 64 counties currently use electronic voting equipment from one of four vendors: Hart Intercivic, Diebold Election Systems, Sequoia Voting Systems and Election Systems and Software.

"The timing is unfortunate," Routt County Commissioner Diane Mitsch Bush said. "We have an election coming up and early voting in October."

Mitsch Bush said she is nonetheless confident November's election will run smoothly, and said Weinland is skilled at doing a good job even when presented with difficulties.

Weinland noted that voters would have the option of voting electronically or by paper ballot this year, which will help alleviate the waits that additional machines would also have addressed. Weinland said her office is also strongly encouraging people to vote early and by mail-in ballots. She said the county already has received more than 900 applications for mail-in ballots this year, when the typical number of mail-in ballots in an odd-year election is 200.

"Election Day is not just a day anymore," Weinland said. "We're trying to change behavior."

- To reach Brandon Gee, call 871-4210

or e-mail bgee@steamboatpilot.com