Voter turnout was relatively low this year in La Plata County despite efforts to make casting ballots easier and more accessible than ever before.
Only 37 percent of registered voters participated in the off-year election, which focused on local issues and a couple of statewide ballot initiatives.
Turnout was slightly higher – 43 percent – if counting only “active” voters, those with deliverable addresses and up-to-date voter registrations, County Clerk and Recorder Tiffany Lee Parker said Wednesday.
By comparison, 50 percent of active voters cast ballots in 2011, the last off-year election, she said.
“I love people getting out there and voting,” Parker said, “so I was personally disappointed because I think we’ve made it so easy and accessible for people, and I’d like to see a higher turnout.”
Several changes this year to the election law made it easier for voters to cast ballots:
All voters were mailed ballots this year, even if they were considered inactive.
People were able to register to vote at any time, including on Election Day. In the past, people had to register by a certain date before the election to be considered eligible electors.
Voter service centers were set up throughout the county where people could register to vote, receive new ballots or drop off ballots in the days leading up to the election.
The new laws helped clean up the election process in general, Parker said.
Not a single provisional ballot was cast this year in La Plata County, she said. Last year, more than 700 provisional ballots were cast.
Provisional ballots are issued if people go to the wrong polling place, if someone received a mail ballot but instead went to a polling place, or if there is some other question about the voter’s eligibility.
Only 62 people opted to use a touch-screen voting machine, and 216 people surrendered their mail-in ballot to fill out a paper ballot in person.
“That just proves that people are very comfortable with mail ballots,” Parker said. “Otherwise, I would have had a lot more people coming into the service centers.”
Low voter turnout may be a result of apathy, Parker said, but two issues that generated a lot of buzz among Durango voters included Amendment 66, a proposed income-tax increase for schools, and a proposed bag fee, which would put a 10-cent fee on plastic and paper bags at large grocery stores.
“A lot of people said they wouldn’t have to vote if it hadn’t been for (the bag fee),” Parker said.
Voters rejected both measures.
Several things must occur before Parker can certify the election, which has to be done by Nov. 25.
The clerk and recorder’s office has eight days to resolve lingering issues with voters who didn’t sign the envelope or who have a signature discrepancy.
“People think that if they forget to sign it, we throw it away,” Parker said. “That’s not it at all. We try to do everything we can to correspond with those people.”
The office also must count any military ballots that arrive, as long as they were sent on or before Election Day.
There are not enough outstanding ballots to change any of the results, Parker said.
Likewise, none of the races was close enough to trigger a recount.
Later this week, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office will identify a specific race the clerk and recorder’s office must audit. To do that, Parker will manually tabulate about 500 ballots and run them through a machine to make sure it was operating properly.
“We’re basically making sure, again, the equipment was right on – that there were no errors,” Parker said.
A local canvassing board will review certain aspects of the election before giving its approval Nov. 18, Parker said. She then can formally submit an official abstract of votes to the state.
shane@durangoherald.com
