{"id":1316418,"date":"2019-11-04T18:04:03","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T01:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=990499"},"modified":"2019-11-05T07:14:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T14:14:00","slug":"garfield-county-election-judges-stay-busy-in-early-november","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/garfield-county-election-judges-stay-busy-in-early-november\/","title":{"rendered":"Garfield County election judges stay busy in early November"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Election judges work together to open and verify ballots at the Garfield County Courthouse on Monday afternoon.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

On and leading up to Election Day, anyone who enters Room 101 B in the Garfield County Courthouse must sign in and out with a bright pink or green pen \u2013 intentionally different colors than the blue or black ink voters use to fill out their ballots.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just one of the many steps taken to ensure all votes are counted \u2013 and that the count is done with integrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all of these checks and balances,\u201d Lois Wilmoth said. <\/p>\n

Wilmoth, who was born and raised in Glenwood Springs, has served as a mail-in election judge for over a decade.  <\/p>\n

Monday, Wilmoth meticulously verified that the number of envelopes that entered room 101 B matched the amount of ballots that would eventually run through the scanning machines.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you have a problem, you stop. Nobody goes ahead anywhere until you find the ballot that is missing,\u201d Wilmoth said.   <\/p>\n

The entire ballot counting process begins when a signature verification judge ensures that the John Hancock on each ballot\u2019s envelope matches the registered voter\u2019s autograph on file.      <\/p>\n

Following the signature verification procedure, each unopened envelope gets placed into a sealed box, which an election judge hand-delivers to Room 101 B. <\/p>\n

From there, election judges open each envelope and review every ballot for blemishes like the all-too-common coffee stain. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf [the ballot] is ruined to where they cannot run it through the machine they have to duplicate it,\u201d Wilmoth said.<\/p>\n

A republican and democrat must then decipher the blemished ballot\u2019s votes and verbally call them out to another election judge. That judge then fills out a new ballot under the watchful eye of another election judge from a different political party. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is nice to have a team that works together,\u201d Starla Karr, Rifle resident and Garfield County election judge, said. \u201cI know voter fraud is a concern for people. So, when you see all they do to try and protect from that, it makes you feel better about the election process.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Garfield County Clerk and Recorder Jean Alberico as of Monday afternoon the county had received approximately 8,000 ballots back of the 34,000 it mailed out. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seven vote centers on Election Day,\u201d Alberico said.<\/p>\n

From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Garfield County residents may still vote at any of those seven locations that include: Carbondale Town Hall, the Glenwood Springs Community Center, New Castle, Silt and Parachute branch libraries and the county clerk\u2019s office in Glenwood Springs and Rifle.<\/p>\n

Additionally, each polling location has the means to assist persons with disabilities.<\/p>\n

\u2018They can drop their ballot off, they can get a replacement [ballot] or if they need to register for the first time \u2013 Colorado has same-day voter registration \u2013 they can do all of those things at any one of these vote centers,\u2019 Alberico said.<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Election judges work together to open and verify ballots at the Garfield County Courthouse on Monday afternoon.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent On and leading up to Election Day, anyone who enters Room 101 B in the Garfield County Courthouse must sign in and out with a bright pink or green pen \u2013 intentionally different colors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1316418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 14:51:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316418"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1316436,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316418\/revisions\/1316436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}