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Voters are casting ballots early
11-03-06|Aspen Daily News|Troy Hooper

Early voting in Pitkin County leading up to next Tuesday's general election is on track to equal or surpass the numbers in the last similar early voting period, tallies show.

Entering today's final opportunity to cast an opinion that counts before traditional Election Day, staffers in the Pitkin County Clerk's Office reported that 1,173 votes had been recorded -- 16 of them provisionally -- after the work day ended Thursday. In 2002, which is comparable to this year since it was a general election with federal seats contested but no presidential uncertainty, the Pitkin County Clerk's Office recorded 1,398 early votes out of 6,219 votes total.

Finding two years with exactly the same ballot questions is impossible, so there is no precise apples-apples comparison -- 2002, for example, had questions about U.S. Senate and House vacancies whereas this year there are only House openings -- and this year includes a challenge for county sheriff for the first time in 20 years, a statewide question about legalization of small amounts of marijuana, and local resident Gail Schwartz's bid to beat the incumbent in a state Senate race that has had its share of negative campaigning.

"I'm hoping to see a 60 percent turnout of all registered voters," said Clerk and Recorder Janice K. Vos Caudill, who is running uncontested herself after she was appointed to the position last year after longtime clerk Sylvia Davis retired.

Early voting is growing in popularity since it was implemented in 1992, according to Colorado Secretary of State public information officer Dana Williams.

"Overall early voting is on the rise in Colorado. We have general information from clerk and recorders who have said they are getting more and more interest in early voting as the years go by. Voters are getting more used to it," she said.

The Colorado Secretary of State's Office has only been tracking early voting statistics since 2002, when the total number of early votes cast was 1,432,818, according to Williams. She said the next general election, in 2004, saw 2,140,588 early voters but that was a presidential election year. With one day to go, clerks across the state are still counting the total number of this year's early voters.

This year is also the first in which every polling place is required to have an electronic voting machine. Some of Colorado's larger counties have been using the machines since the 1990s, but this is the first year Pitkin County has done so.

"The primary purpose of these electronic voting machines is they are accessible with people with disabilities," Williams said. "They can vote privately and independently without the assistance of someone else."

The machines, of course, can be used by anyone -- regardless of whether they have a disability. Williams admits that "with any technology there can be resistance." Just under 23 percent of county voters used the electronic touch screen Thursday. The majority of voters used the traditional fill-in-the-circle paper ballots.

Early voting is considered a convenient alternative to Election Day because waiting lines are shorter -- sometimes even nonexistent -- since early voting is spread out over two weeks. For workers in Aspen, it also means an easy stop at the Pitkin County Clerk's Office, which is located downtown just off Main Street.

"It's a great idea," said Mark Rothman after he walked out of the voting booth on Thursday. He and his wife were voting early for the first time because they plan to be out of town on Election Day. "It gives us a lot of flexibility," he said.

"People love early voting. It is one thing that has been really positive as far as voting is concerned," said Davis, the retired county clerk and recorder.

One of the biggest advantages of early voting, according to Vos Caudill, is for people who haven't registered correctly or who have made address changes. She said one man called her yesterday to find out if he was registered in Pitkin County. It turned out the man lives in Pitkin County but was registered in Garfield County.

"We can file an emergency registration if he comes to our office," she said. "Early voting allows us to assist the voter with the not-so-perfect situations."

Early voting will end today at 4:30 p.m. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 7.