NEWS BLOG |
Loveland's Independent News Source |
Larimer County Clerk To Resign On April Fools' Day |
Voting Centers Explained Larimer County was a pioneer under Scott Doyle's leadership in establishing the voting center model to increase early voting and decrease the number of provisional ballots cast in any election. The voting center model essentially eliminates the traditional system of designating a polling place in each precinct during elections where voters can only cast their ballot within their own precinct. Relying more heavily on mail and early voting in local elections, the “Voting Center Model” did away with the hundreds of election precincts throughout Larimer County and instead created generic voting centers where anyone can vote at any center throughout the county. Unlike traditional elections, anyone could vote early, drop-off their mail-in ballot or vote at any center throughout the county instead of only at their precinct on election day. One advantage for county elections officials is the number of provisional ballots decreases. This is because any registered voter may vote at any center. In the traditional system each voter was required to know their precinct's voting place and cast their ballot at that single location. If they mistakenly arrived at another voting location, their ballot could only be cast provisionally since traditional precinct voting stations would only record the votes of those located inside their own precinct. Once the provisional ballot arrives at the county election headquarters, that provisional ballot could be cast after verifying they didn't vote within their own precinct thus creating more work. Under the voting center model, each voter's identification and eligibility to vote can be verified at any center where they cast their ballot. Because the vote center model uses a linked database, the same voter would be unable to vote again at another center since the computer will show the election worker that citizens has already voted somewhere else. Critics of the system say that it undermines the traditional system of voting by removing the "public" nature of how votes are collected and counted. In other words, neighbors wouldn't know if the other voted or when and the custody of the ballots from any one precinct cannot be accounted for by single group of volunteers. In other words, a fraudulent act like ballot box stuffing by precinct volunteers could be isolated to one precinct and those ballots not counted in the total vote count. In the current system, a breach of security in any one voting center could slightly alter the vote count across hundreds of precincts making it more difficult to detect and impossible to remove from the final election results. Lastly, the voting center model requires an excess number of ballots be printed since every precinct may have a different number of candidates and ballot measures depending upon the specific city ward, taxing district and school district it is within. That means every voting center must stock ballots for every precinct in the county resulting in a much larger number of ballot being printed than people eligible to vote which could be a temptation for mischief. |
Scott Doyle Larimer County Clerk & Recorder |