County Clerks Work To Resolve Ballot Issues Before Election Day
GRAND COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4)- With just five days to go until Election Day, some voters in Grand County are still waiting for their ballots to arrive in the mail.
CBS4 Mountain Reporter Matt Kroschel is one of those voters whose ballot has yet to arrive.
Grand County Clerk and Recorder Sara Rosene says there have been a few isolated issues like there are every election, but so far things are running smoothly.
When Kroschel checked his ballot status, it was mailed Oct. 15 along with every other ballot in Grand County. But it still hadn't arrived by Oct. 30, two weeks later.
He's not alone in Colorado; there are also issues with ballots in Bent County and Adams County.
Rosene has helped Grand County voters cast ballots for the past 27 years. She's heard and seen it all, including ballots that seem to vanish.
Grand County officials are watching closely for problems, but have found only a few.
"If you start hearing of a certain town or area that isn't getting their mail number of people then we start hunting them down," Rosene added.
And that's exactly what happened late last month in rural Bent County and in Adams County where thousands of ballots went missing for a short time before being delivered.
Bent County Clerk Patti Nickell re-issued one-fifth of the 2,500 ballots in her southeastern county because they had not been delivered and the U.S. Postal Service was not able to locate them.
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She reordered the new ballots. The same day those new ones arrived, the original ballots turned up. It's still not clear what happened in that case.
Bent is the second county this election where a significant number of voters did not receive their ballots in a timely manner according to the Colorado Secretary of State's office.
One-fourth of the ballots in Adams County also were held up although they were located and delivered.
"Our office has visited the Post Office facility in Denver, and talked to clerks in these two counties as well as other clerks," Secretary of State Wayne Williams said. "Voting is a sacred right and we want everyone's voice to be heard."
"We really haven't had a very big number this year hasn't been any bigger than any other years, you just happen to be one of the lucky ones," Rosene told Kroschel. "I'm so sorry for any voter that doesn't get their ballot that's why we follow up on those undeliverables, it could be our error, it could be the voters error but we just want them to have that opportunity to vote."
Election Day is Nov. 6.
Matt Kroschel covers news throughout Colorado working from the CBS4 Mountain Newsroom. Send story ideas to mrkroschel@cbs.com and connect with him on Twitter @Matt_Kroschel.