A snafu by the Pueblo County clerk’s office has resulted in thousands of ballots being sent to Pueblo voters that could be vulnerable to tampering due to a faulty envelope and ballot design.
On ballots for the Nov. 7 election that were mailed to voters last week, several candidates listed in the Pueblo mayoral contest would be visible and accessible through a hole punched in the middle of the return envelope — depending on how voters folded and inserted their ballots.
Matt Crane, the executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, told The Denver Post on Monday that the error was something that “should have been caught in the quality-control process and that is something Pueblo County will address in future elections.”
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Candidates pointed out that if someone were to get ahold of a completed and sealed ballot, they could fill in another choice in the race through the hole in the envelope, effectively voiding that vote for mayor since only one choice in the nine-person contest is permitted.
Election workers first would try to determine voter intent in the event of an overvote in the race, Crane said, though there would be no way to identify or contact the voter after the fact to get clarity.
Heather Graham, a Pueblo city councilwoman who’s a candidate for mayor, said the mistake by the clerk’s office was discouraging.
“Voting is your fundamental right as a citizen and your ballot should be protected,” Graham said.
Crane said voters in Pueblo concerned about the vulnerability of their ballots could use the instruction sheet that came with them as a secrecy sleeve. Colorado law doesn’t require counties to provide secrecy sleeves.
Counties in other states and across Colorado, including Denver, have holes in the return envelope. The intent is that election officials can easily verify that no ballots got stuck in envelopes. But Crane said clerk’s offices are supposed to thoroughly test ballots inside envelopes — no matter how they’re folded or inserted — ahead of an election to make sure sensitive parts aren’t visible through the hole.
Candace Rivera, a Democrat, was elected as Pueblo County clerk last November. Dan Lepik, the supervisor of elections in Pueblo County, said separate vendors were hired to create the ballot and the envelope.
“Two different processes, two different vendors — it just happened that way,” he said.
When asked why the incompatibility between ballot and envelope wasn’t discovered before ballots were mailed to voters, Lepik said: “We didn’t think it would be an issue.”
Another ballot-related mishap occurred last week in Teller County, west of Colorado Springs, which sent 15,000 replacement ballots to voters who received incomplete versions.
Jack Todd, spokesman for Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, said Monday the secretary of state’s office approved the “envelope and ballot design” for Pueblo County but did not answer questions as to how the error got through and what Griswold’s office planned to do to make sure it didn’t happen again.
“Colorado’s elections are safe and secure,” Todd said. “Ballots will be counted in accordance with the voter’s intent in Pueblo and across the state.”
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