Smudge on ballot puts kink in vote-counting

Scott N. Miller    Vail Daily   October 24, 2005

 EAGLE ? This is why they practice.

During testing of the county?s voting equipment last week, Eagle County Clerk and Recorder Teak Simonton and her crew discovered a glitch.

Due to a printer?s error, a light smudge runs across the line for Rohn Robbins, a candidate for the Eagle County Home Rule Charter Commission.

How to vote: By mail, or ballots off at any Eagle County Clerk and Recorder?s office.

For more information: call 328-8715 
The vote-counting machines picked up the smudge as a vote for Robbins. To remedy the mistake, employees from the clerk?s office for the last several days have been hand-counting Robbins? part of the ballot ? all the candidates for the two ?at large? seats on the charter commission.

?Everything else is being run through the machines,? Simonton said. ?We?ve verified multiple times that every other race is being tabulated accurately.?

Since ballots are being hand-counted as they arrive by mail, Simonton said she doesn?t expect the Nov. 1 vote-counting to take too much longer than it would normally.

?I expect we?ll have all the results no later than 10 p.m.,? she said.

While there?s more work, and some frustration in the clerk?s office, there is a bright side to the mistake. The printer has waived his fee for the ballots, which will ultimately save Simonton?s office more than $10,000.

?That will more than cover the added labor of hand-counting,? she said.