Monday 27 October 2008
by: Myung Oak Kim, The Rocky Mountain News
Sequoia voting machine. (File Photo)
The vendor for Denver Elections failed to print and ship more than 18,000 mail ballots - 7,000 more than originally thought - but the post office says all of them will be delivered to voters by Wednesday.
The mistake was discovered over the weekend after a local Postal Service official said Sequoia Voting Systems delivered slightly more than 10,000 ballots Oct. 16 from its Porterville, Calif., printing plant.
It was initally thought the order was about 11,000 ballots short - a problem that came to light after numerous complaints from voters who said they hadn't received their ballots.
A review of all ballot orders revealed the actual number of missing mail ballots is 18,055, said Denver Elections Director Michael Scarpello.
Sequoia printed them over the weekend and dropped them off Monday morning at the Denver mail processing facility.
U.S. Postal Service spokesman Al DeSarro said at least 90 percent of those ballots will be delivered to homes today [Monday], and the rest will reach mailboxes Wednesday.
Company spokeswoman Michelle Shafer said the mistake was "completely Sequoia's fault."
"There was a technical problem with the data file we used to prepare this batch of ballots for mailing that caused us to make this very unfortunate mistake."
Sequoia has had a troubled history with Denver elections.
In 2006, the company miscalculated return postage for thousands of mail ballots, understating the required postage by 24 cents. The company also transposed a 'yes' and 'no' answer for a question on thousands of ballots.
Sequoia's untested electronic pollbook crashed on Election Day, causing lines that lasted several hours. Up to 20,000 voters left polling places without casting a ballot. Denver scrapped that system after the election.
Shafer said her company is not focused on past problems.
"We are concerned about resolving this specific issue for Denver and working with them in preparation for Nov. 4, as well as making sure this situation never occurs again anywhere," she said.
Denver Clerk and Recorder Stephanie O'Malley said her office had "firm conversations" with Sequoia about the missing ballots and she will reconsider after the election whether to continue working with the company. Denver also may charge Sequoia for the cost of issuing replacement ballots to voters affected by the mistake.
Councilman-at-large Doug Linkhart said he's been frustrated with Sequoia's performance and voted against renewing the company's contract last summer.
"We've given them millions of dollars and it just doesn't seem like we're getting our money's worth," Linkhart said.
Sequoia has printed and shipped to the Postal Service more than 190,000 mail ballots for Denver in the past month. Denver Elections workers are now sending out mail ballots daily from their headquarters to accommodate new requests.
Voters who have already obtained a replacement ballot should discard the ballot that comes in the mail this week, elections officials said. Once a replacement ballot has been issued, or if someone voted a provisional ballot at the polls, any other ballot will be invalidated.
Roughly 1.6 million Colorado voters have requested a mail ballot for this election. Tuesday is the deadline for requesting a mail ballot be sent to your home. Early voting at polling places continues until Friday.
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