Nancy Doty, Arapahoe County Clerk, said the first 73,167 absentee ballots were delivered to the General Mail Facility in Denver on Monday, October 9. All other absentee ballots will be mailed from the Clerk’s Office as applications are received.

As this year’s ballot is lengthy, she urges voters to request absentee ballots ASAP. If you want an absentee ballot mailed to you, request it on later than October 31. You can pick up an absentee ballot from the Clerk’s office until November 3.

All absentee ballots must be received by the Clerk by 7:00 p.m. on election day Tuesday, November 7.

There are two mail ballot drop-off locations in the City of Littleton.

Arapahoe County Clerk & Recorder
Arapahoe County Admin Building
5334 S. Prince St. 303-795-4511
Mon. – Fri. 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

City Clerk’s Office
Littleton City Center
2255 W. Berry Ave. 303-795-3780
Mon. – Fri. 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

MEMO

From: Nancy A. Doty, Arapahoe County Clerk & Recorder

Subject: DIRECT RECORDING ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES

This November’s election will be one of the most important elections in our country’s history. With that being said, I want to give assurance to the voters in this county that the equipment used to record and tabulate your vote is reliable and accurate. Your vote will be counted and it will be done accurately.

The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) passed by Congress in 2002 revised the way elections are conducted. It enacted the most significant changes in the process of elections since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. One of the most important improvements is to allow voters with disabilities to vote independently and in private. This has required the clerks in this state to acquire electronic voting equipment to allow that segment of our population to vote in the manner required by law.

In order for any clerk to purchase voting equipment, the voting machines must have been federally certified and then approved by the Secretary of State. Only four vendors met this requirement in Colorado.

I called for a committee of 11 people to help me in selecting voting equipment that would be used for potentially the next 15 years in Arapahoe County. Both major parties, Democratic and Republican, IT experts, disabled community, election staff and experts in contract negotiations were represented on the committee. The committee overwhelmingly selected the Sequoia Edge II voting machine for several reasons. First, DRE equipment has been used very successfully in the US for over two decades. And Sequoia DRE equipment has been used very successfully in Arapahoe County for nearly 20 years with wonderful support from the vendor. Second, the other vendors could not match the initial cost in purchasing new DRE’s. Third, Sequoia equipment meets the needs of voters with disabilities as required in HAVA.

The new voting equipment purchased from Sequoia has a paper audit trail that allows a voter to verify their selected choices prior to casting the vote. Our State Legislators passed this unfunded mandate in 2005. The paper record is the official record should there be any required recount in an election. The Canvass Board composed of members from both major parties test 5 % of the voting equipment after an election to verify the count recorded on the paper record matches the electronic record. There were no exceptions found in the testing after the August Primary Election.

To allege that some of the vendor’s employees of the company are under indictment for voter fraud and that the company is being sued in New Jersey for failure to perform under contract is without merit and is simply not true. The vendor has no control over votes and never has.

I have an open invitation to concerned voters to come to my office and see how the equipment and voting process works. If anyone can substantiate a real security or technology flaw in Arapahoe County, please let me know. No one wants a secure and accurate election as much as a County Clerk. I echo the Secretary of State’s statement in that “I ask voters to ignore the political rhetoric by a few seeking to destroy (voting) confidence.”