Tools

Voting Officials Work to Verify Ballots

by KREX News Room
by Jordan Sherman

Story Created: Oct 22, 2012 at 5:46 PM MDT

Story Updated: Oct 22, 2012 at 9:54 PM MDT

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.- As early voting begins and mail-in ballots continue to pour in, election officials are working to ensure each and every ballot is legitimate.

"The way that we make sure you've only returned one to us is when we check them in, we look up your voter record. The computer tells us whether or not we've received one back from you already. If we find that you have returned two ballots, we would investigate," said Sheila Reiner, Mesa County clerk and recorder.

Reiner says there are other methods to discern the validity of a ballot, such as comparing signatures.

"We also do signature verification to verify someone's signature on the backside of their ballot envelope to the last signature we have on file in their voter registration record. If that doesn't match we suspend the ballot," said Reiner.

Reiner said about 100 ballots every election are suspended due to the signature verification failing. When this occurs, elections officials will send out a letter to the ballot's recipient asking them to prove, using identification, that the ballot is theirs.

According to the Mesa County elections office, during the 2008 presidential election a total of 115 ballots failed signature verification.

Of those, 85 were eventually counted after their owners proved they had cast those ballots.

Colorado statutes say if someone knowingly commits voter fraud, they could face up to a $5,000 fine and/or 18 months in prison.

Reiner says she only knows of one Mesa County person prosecuted for voter fraud after they voted in two different states.

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

KREX - News, Weather, Sports for Grand Junction | Montrose | Glenwood Springs - Coverage You Can Count On and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.

Most Popular
This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.
News Channel 5 Weather