El Paso County residents call for hand count of ballots 1 week ahead of election

Nov. 1—More than 20 El Paso County residents on Tuesday publicly called for hand counts of local ballots just one week ahead of Colorado's Nov. 8 general election.

During the regular county commissioners meeting, residents repeated disputed claims that mail-in balloting is fraudulent and said they did not trust the county's election process. Many called for major reforms, including a return to one-day voting with valid identification and a return to hand-counting ballots.

Colorado has been conducting mail-in elections since 2013.

"We want to trust the election system. We don't," resident Steve Spencer told commissioners.

Some speakers — including former Senate District 9 candidate Lynda Zamora Wilson, one of several GOP candidates who lost in the local primary election and requested discretionary recounts — repeated allegations that during the recount of the June 28 primary election in El Paso County a canvass board failed to follow statutory requirements to compare, during an accuracy test, the manual count of ballots with the machine count.

Zamora Wilson was one of seven GOP candidates, most from El Paso County, who in August filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court alleging specifically that election officials did not "compare the manual count of those ballots with the results of machine count that was tabulated by each of the chosen voting devices in the primary election." The suit named El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold as defendants.

Broerman did not respond to those claims during the public meeting Tuesday, but in previous interviews with The Gazette called the lawsuit "categorically false in every way imaginable."

The Secretary of State's Office, he previously said, sets the criteria for the tests completed on the ballot tabulating machines ahead of an election and recounts. Broerman has said his office followed that criteria "to the letter."

The Secretary of State's Office has also said the lawsuit was "without merit."

A Denver District Court judge ultimately dismissed the case in late August. In September, the Colorado Supreme Court declined to hear the plaintiffs' appeal of the Denver court's decision.

Broerman on Tuesday called El Paso County's elections "secure," and commissioners encouraged residents to publicly inspect ballots kept on record in the Clerk and Recorder's Office.

His office digitally scans each ballot and per state law makes them available to residents for inspection while also maintaining voter anonymity, Broerman said. Residents can schedule a two-hour timeslot with his office to review a sampling of paper ballots and conduct their own hand-tallies, he said.

"I do think people have the best trust in looking at an actual printed ballot, not something that's been (photocopied)," Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez said before volunteering to help review ballots at the clerk's office.

Commission Chairman Stan VanderWerf also said residents who are concerned about voter fraud can bring their concerns to the Fourth Judicial District Attorney's Office, which has a designated voter fraud investigator.

Broerman said about 56,000 people had returned completed ballots in El Paso County as of Monday. His office expects about 60%, or around 270,000, of the county's approximately 465,000 active registered voters to participate in this year's election, he said.

Of the ballots that have been returned so far, 38% are from Republican voters, 24% are from Democratic voters and 35% are from unaffiliated voters, Broerman said.

The Clerk and Recorder's Office must receive ballots by 7 p.m. Nov. 8. Ballots postmarked after the deadline will not be counted.

Broerman said Tuesday it is now too late to return completed ballots by mail. Voters must now return their ballots at drop boxes or in person at a voter service and polling center through 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Five voter service and polling centers are open in El Paso County through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Monday and Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Seventeen additional voter service and polling centers will open across the county beginning Friday, Broerman said. All 37 of the county's voter service and polling centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday.

For a full list of El Paso County ballot drop box and voter service and polling center locations and operating hours, visit epcvotes.com and click on the "2022 Elections" tab.

Broerman has previously said only voters who need in-person services should use a voter center. Their primary use is for registering new voters and issuing ballots to those who did not receive one in the mail. The centers also offer ballot marking devices for people with disabilities, he said.

The clerk also said residents should not "wait until the last minute" to vote. El Paso County's Nov. 8 ballot is the largest in 34 years, Broerman said. Residents who are voting on Election Day should expect to take, on average, 15 to 20 minutes to complete their ballot, he said.

Residents can visit the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder's website at epcvotes.com for more information. They may also call 719-575-8683 or email elections@elpasoco.com with questions, Broerman said.