Official final results for the 2013 Coordinated Election are certified

PRESS RELEASE
November 18, 2013

GARFIELD COUNTY, CO – Garfield County Clerk Jean Alberico and election judges have certified the final results of the 2013 Coordinated Election. Voters cast a total of 13,710 ballots, including 397 property owner ballots, which is 46 percent of registered voters in Garfield County. “I was somewhat surprised that the voter turnout ended up at 46 percent, since the returned ballots were coming in so slowly at first. We only had about a third of these ballots returned by the Friday before the election, so it was good to see many more ballots came in on Election Day than we were anticipating,” said Garfield County Clerk Jean Alberico.

Town halls across the county, libraries and the Glenwood Springs community center opened their doors to voters this year to serve as ballot drop-off locations as well as Voter Service and Polling Centers (VSPC). These centers were set up in each town to add some in-person voting choices for the all mail ballot election. This was the result of the state legislature passing House Bill 13-1303, and was a community service much appreciated by Alberico and the Garfield County Commissioners.

Forty election judges have finished their work of pre- and post-election tasks, as well as preparing and processing the mail ballots, and running the VSPC sites for Early Voting and Election Day. The Canvass Board appointed by local political parties, along with Alberico and her staff, completed the required post election audit on Wednesday, November 13, and certified the election results on Thursday, November 14. Alberico and the staff of the clerk’s office enjoyed working with these election volunteers, and thanks them for offering their time to the election process. Their efforts assisted in making sure everything went smoothly from ballot drop off to Election Day, and finally with certifying the final results.

Looking ahead to future mail-in ballot elections, Alberico would like to focus more on voter education. “We need voters to know not to use pencils when voting. The voter instructions on each ballot ask voters to use a blue or black pen to mark the ballot. Several hundred voters used pencil, and each of these ballots had to be duplicated by the four judges on the Resolution Board to ensure that the voter’s choices would be accurately counted.”

The certified final election results for the 2013 Coordinated Election can be found at garfield-county.com, and will be archived on the Garfield County Clerk and Recorder pages.