Editor’s Note: The following announcement was submitted by the Teller County commissioners, and deals with some concerns over the forthcoming Nov. 5 election. Ballots for this presidential election, which also encompasses many state and regional races and a slew of local and state ballot issues, were mailed out to registered voters on Oct. 11. Stay tuned for continual election updates in TMJ News and on our website and Facebook page.
Teller County has and will continue to be vigilant to ensure safe, fair and free elections in Teller County. County Commissioners, the elected heads of Woodland Park, Cripple Creek and Victor, and the chairs of the Teller County Republican and Democratic Parties have a high level of confidence in our County Clerk to conduct our elections. Recent news articles alleging irregularities or lapses in technological security and processes in other counties in Colorado are not reflective of the voting systems, processes and technology used in Teller County. These efforts include:
• The investment of over $300,000 in new, state-of-the-art vote tabulating software that is not capable of being connected to wireless networks.
• The use of newly formatted flash drives to transfer voting data instead of USB cables connected to a computer.
• A vote counting system that creates a data and image record of each ballot counted and links them together for easy cross verification.
• Hand verification of all signatures on submitted ballot envelopes.
• Consistent and secure chain of custody processes for collecting and transporting ballots to the Election Center.
• Reconciliation of returned ballot reports from the United States Postal Service to the actual ballots returned to the clerk’s office.
• Video surveillance of all ballot drop boxes 24/7, which are checked and verified daily.
There are other processes and actions conducted by our County Clerk leading up to election, including purging voter rolls of ineligible voters, voters deceased since the last election, and training for election judges. The elected officials of Teller County, our local Republican and Democratic Party leaders and the elected leaders of the cities of Woodland Park, Cripple Creek and Victor stand together in our confidence and support for the soundness of our election processes in Teller County. We encourage every eligible resident to exercise their individual right to vote and share in our confidence that every legal vote will be counted,and counted properly.
