Boulder’s Election Process

Have you ever wondered how voting in Boulder County works? What steps does Boulder County take in its election system to ensure that elections are accurate, secure, and fair?

This page offers you an overview of the election process in Boulder County and discusses some potential vulnerabilities.

(Note: This document is in process, so if you have the information you would like to add, please email Cathy with updates and/or corrections).

Introduction

The process of voting in Boulder County is complicated, as this long blog post will show.

Voting begins with each potential voter registering to vote through a centralized voting system managed by Colorado’s Secretary of State, Jena Griswold. For more details, see below.

Statutes governing voting in Colorado can be found at the Colorado Secretary of State website and archived here.

The Colorado Statutes on Election can be downloaded here. This 555-page document was revised in 2021.

Colorado uses mail-in ballots, drop-boxes, in-person voting, and email voting.  All ballots cast, no matter how the ballot is submitted end up as a paper ballot.  Certain overseas absentee ballots including military ballots come in via email as a .pdf (a picture of the ballot).  All of these ballots get printed out creating a paper ballot. Note: people who submit their ballots via email have waived their rights (knowingly) to an anonymous vote, which means whoever is processing those ballots in the computer system can see who the vote is for.   

in Boulder County, elections are run by the Elections Division under the direction of Boulder County Clerk & Recorder, Molly Fitzpatrick.

Before being elected County Clerk, Molly was the Organizing Director with New Era Colorado, where she managed statewide programs to register thousands of young voters in Colorado, helped voters navigate our elections process, and supported the policies and administrative reforms to make democracy more accessible. She has also worked with county clerks across the state and the state legislature to improve voter access and voter education initiatives – including voter preregistration for 16- and 17-year olds and election modernization in 2013.

Campaigning

Voting centers

People may choose to vote in person at Voting Centers (formally known as Voter Service and Polling Centers). In 2021 these were open for 8 days before and on election day.

EachVoting Center is staffed with several Election Judges. Boulder County hires Republican, Democrat, and Independent Election Judges.

The size of the election determines how many Voting Centers are set up. For example, during the 2020 presidential election, 20Voting Centers were set up around Boulder County. In contrast, in 2021, only fourVoting Centers were set up.

At the Voting Centers, people can register to vote and cast their ballots. At the Voting Center, voters have 4 ways to cast a ballot: 1) with a ballot that may be put into a envelop that can be mailed in; 2)with a ballot that may be put into an envelope and put into a drop box located at the Voting Center or elsewhere, 3) Using an old-fashioned polling booth that produces a flat ballot that is put into a protective sleeve and placed in a special ballot box used only for in-person voting or 4) Using an “ICX Voting” Tablets (see below) that prints out a ballot that has the voter’s selections that may then put into a sleeve and into the in-person ballot box.

ImageCast X Ballot-Marking Device – Dominion voting systems manufacturers these ICX machines. Voters can use theseelectronic, digital tablets to fill out in-person ballots.  A voter makes their choices on the tablet and the ICX machine prints a paper ballot.  From there, the voter takes their completed ballot and places it into the physical ballot box.  The ICX machines are managed by a tech election judge.  ICX machines don’t record any information, they only fill out ballots for voters.  The ballots printed in ICX machines differ from mail-in and drop-box ballots.

PROVISIONAL BALLOTS

If a person walks into a Vote Center without any valid identification, they are still allowed to cast a vote. In this case, people lacking valid identification may cast a provisional ballot if they sign an affidavit stating  “under penalty of perjury I affirm citizenship and residency for 22 days”. It is a  Class 1 misdemeanor to affirm falsely.

BALLOT PROCESSING

Once people have voted, the ballots are processed. Below is a video overview of this process:

Ballot Tracking

One of the most important components of the inbound ballot process is having a
system to track ballots as they move from one processing area to another to account for any
changes in the overall quantity.

Click here for a 25 point checklist for Best Practices for ballot accounting put out by the Brennan Center.

https://www.eac.gov/sites/default/files/electionofficials/vbm/Inbound_Ballot_Process.pdf

Ballot Sorting

Once ballots arrive at the Vote Processing center, envelopes with signatures containing ballots are removed from ballot boxes and put into a Sorting Machine. Boulder County uses an Agilis Sorting Machine. This machine does several things:

• It weighs each envelope to ensure that there is only one ballot inside each envelope.
• The system scans and extracts signature images.
• It can verify signatures with those on file at the Secretary of State, although Boulder County chose not to use this function.
• It can process up to 18,000 pieces per hour.
• It sorts ballots into precincts so that ballots can be scanned in batches acccording to the unnique needs of that precinct. (For example different precincts can be in different cities and elect different city council members.

Signature verification

In order to ensure the integrity of an election, it is essential that each eligible voter cast only a single ballot. The way that Boulder does this is with signature verification to identify eligible registered voters. See the video below for this process. Signatures can be verified with by machine (see above) or by Election Judges. Since at least 2021, Boulder County relied solely on Election Judges to verify signatures.

Boulder Country has a two-tiered process involving Election Judges who look at every signature on mail-in ballots.

Boulder County judges use two computer applications to verify signatures. One is Console used in both Tier 1 and 2 and the other is SCORE, used in Tier 2 only.

SCORE contains voter information such as signature samples, birth date, address, gender, and party affiliation.

Tier 1

In the first phase (Tier 1) a single Election Judge compares the signature on the ballot envelope with the signature on file in the database. If an election judge questions whether the signature on the envelope matches the signature on file, then the envelope with the questionable signature is then sent to Tier Two. If the election judge decides that the signature matches the signature on file, then the ballot is considered valid. Note that even if poll watchers question the validity of the signature, it is still considered valid. Why a bipartisan team does not verify signatures in Tier One may save money, but it does raise eyebrows.

Tier 2

Ballots with questionable signatures where two Election Judges, a Democrat and a Republican together, analyze whether the signature is valid or must be sent back to the voter to be “cured”. This means the voter is notified that their signature did not match the signature on file. A voter has 8 days to reply and “cure” the signature. Signature verification happens without ballot envelop being opened to ensure a voter’s anonymity.

Ballot Curing

Under Colorado law, if both members of a bipartisan team of election judges agree that the signature on the ballot does not match the signature in the voter’s file, they cannot accept the ballot for counting. The ballot envelope is not opened, and the enclosed ballot is not counted until the discrepancy is resolved. County clerks must notify a voter within three days of discovering the discrepancy, but in no event later than two days after Election Day.

Any voter who has a signature discrepancy or ID deficiency is notified by their county clerk via U.S. mail. That notification includes an affidavit with instructions on how they can return the signed paper affidavit with a photocopy of an acceptable form of ID to their county election office. The affidavit also contains instructions for voters to use the TXT2Cure system, if they instead prefer to use their smart phones to submit the information necessary to ensure their ballots are counted. Voters who are signed up for BallotTrax will receive a notice through the program if their ballot has a signature discrepancy. The notice has step-by-step instructions on how to cure their ballot using TXT2Cure and lets them know a letter from their County Clerk is on the way.

If the signature on a ballot does not match the signature on file, the ballot must be “cured.”

In 2020, Colorado Secretary of State Gena Griswold implemented a program that makes it easy for voters to fix signature discrepancies using an app for smart phones called Txt2cure.

TXT2Cure

TXT2Cure is designed to reduce the number of ballots rejected due to missing or discrepant signatures and is especially geared for younger voters who statistically have more ballots with signature discrepancies.

“In 2020, over 11,000 ballots that otherwise may not have been counted were fixed using TXT2CURE,” said Secretary Griswold.

Under the program, if a voter is notified of a signature discrepancy or ID deficiency, all they have to do is text the word Colorado to 2VOTE (28683) and click on the link they receive as a reply. They will then enter their voter ID number printed on the rejection notice they receive from their county election office, affirm they returned a ballot for the election, sign the affidavit on their phone, take a photo of an acceptable form of ID, and select “Submit”. The voter’s information is then electronically transmitted to their county clerk for processing during business hours. When a voter completes these steps before the deadline of midnight on July 6th, their ballot will be counted. 

Ballot Processing

1. Ballots and Envelops Received

• In-person voting with Image Cast
• Mail In Ballots
• Collection Box

2. Mail Ballot Preparation

In Boulder County, ballots from collection boxes and the post office are sent to the main processing center.

3. Sorting /Signature Verification

• Election judges are hired by Boulder County to verify signatures in a 2 tier process. In the first round of signature verification, a single judge determines whether a signature is valid or not. Any signatures that are not validated in Tier 1 go to Tier 2, where two judges debate the signatures. To minimize fraud in the second tier of voting, both Democrats and Republicans verify the signatures of votes in the second round of voting.
• Veriscript Software analyzes signatures. – Although Boulder County has the machine capacity to verify signatures, they have chosen instead to use election judges.

4. Opening, Separating & Visual Inspection

5. Scanning, Resolution & Results Tabulation

Preparing Ballots

Scanning Ballots

Ballots are scanned with Dominion’s ImageCast Evolution Ballot-Scanning Machine.

This machine scans, records, and interprets each cast ballot with a dual image 200 dpi scanner.  This machine appends the digital ballot image with the AuditMark® vote cast record for improved transparency.

Once scanned, the ballots are then deposited into a sealed ballot box.

The tabulated votes and scanned ballot images are stored on a memory card. After the polls close on election night, the memory card is removed and transported back to the Department of Elections. The results from each polling place’s memory card are then uploaded into the total count.

Dominion Voter System

Dominion is the voting system used to create ballots, capture votes, and tabulate results. It was chosen by the state after public input in 2015.

Dominion is one of the largest voting-equipment companies in the country, providing machines and software to more than 1,300 jurisdictions including 62 out of 64 counties in Colorado. Dominion Voting Systems was incorporated in the United States in 2009 with an office at 1801 Lawrence Street in Denver.

In 2015, when Colorado counties were required to update their voting equipment to comply with a 2009 law, then-Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican, said that the new equipment could only be purchased from Dominion. His office had been working since 2013 to make voting equipment uniform across the state, and the Dominion deal was a continuation of that effort. Williams had weighed Dominion’s financial health and sustainability, as well as recommendations from an advisory committee, before deciding to designate Dominion as the statewide voting-machine vendor, according to a 2015 press release from his office. ~ Westword

The Dominion voting system is connected to the internet to get new updates and “trusted builds”. After vendor software and updates are installed for the “trusted build” the voting system is then disconnected from the internet. The trusted build is certified by the Secretary of State’s office for election use. The most recent certification on file is from 2016.

Dominion uses “Democracy Suite” software with the following components:

• ImageCast Central absentee ballot counting solution, powered by state-of-the-art Canon scanners, tabulates the results from all ballots, regardless of voting channel.
• ImageCast Adjudication – this digital tool which allows for efficient and reliable multiuser adjudication of ballots with conditions in real-time.
• ImageCast Remote allows overseas and military voters to securely and conveniently access their ballots. Ballots will be tabulated on the ImageCast Central as all other ballots, eliminating the need to duplicate ballots or for an additional system – and the labor required to operate it.
• Mobile Ballot Printing – Dominion’s simple solution to print any ballot whenever and wherever needed.
• ImageCast X: ICX Machines / ICX Ballots:  ICX machines are tablets that can be used to fill out in-person ballots.  The ICX machine has a digital version of a voter’s ballot.  A voter makes their choices on the tablet and the ICX machine issues a paper ballot when the voter completes the process.  From there, the voter takes their completed ballot and places it a physical ballot box.  The ICX machines are managed by a tech election judge.  ICX machines don’t record any information, they only fill out ballots for voters.  Dominion’s voting device, the ImageCast X tablet combines the flexibility, efficiency, and simplicity of modern technology, with an underlying platform of security and performance. It made its debut in Colorado.

Computer System 2:  BPMS.  The BPMS system is the ballot and label printing program that integrates with SCORE (ePollbook).  BPMS kicks off the tracking process for the physical documents used in the voter process: paper ballots, envelopes, and VSPC forms.  

Adjudication

Once ballots have been scanned, some marks on the ballot cannot be tallied by the voting machine. These ambiguous marks must be clarified by humans. Judges then adjudicate to decide the intention of the voter.

Voting Integrity

The goal of a great election system ensures ballot access to registered voters while maintaining electoral integrity. The 2020 election was one of the most contentious U.S. elections, eroding confidence in citizens of all political parties—even if for different reasons. Doubts in the election system undermine the foundation of democracy. In 2016, Democrats were worried about breaches to election integrity. In 2020, Republicans voiced their concerns.

Some say that voting has never been more secure in the United States, while a report from the Harvard-based  Electoral Integrity Project, shows that US elections rate “lower than any other long-established democracies and affluent societies.”

“The U.S. scored the same as Mexico and was the lowest among liberal democracies. In contrast, Denmark, Finland, and Norway are among the top-ranked countries.

According to US News and World Report:

“A 2019 report published by the Electoral Integrity Project, an independent project based out of Harvard University, found that U.S. elections from July 2012 through December 2018 rated “lower than any other long-established democracies and affluent societies.” Each country in the index was given a score out of 100 based on assessments of the quality of each of its elections – including categories such as electoral laws, voter registration and voting process – one month after polls closed.”

In 2016, Colorado ranked # 10 in terms of perceived election integrity (Arizona and Wisconsin are last and second to last), according to the Electoral Integrity Project, i

Risk Limiting Audit

To ensure accuracy, a statewide risk-limiting audit is conducted after each election. The process reviews how a ballot’s votes were captured at the time it was processed by comparing a sample of paper ballots with digital tallies. To learn more about the Colorado risk-limiting audit process, see this Politico story on the implementation, or this Colorado Public Radio story, or this fact sheet from the Colorado Secretary of State.

General Vulnerabilities

“Colorado is an affirmation voting state.”  This election philosophy means “don’t turn any potential voters away.”  Election judges are trained to issue a ballots a ballot to any potential voter, even those without proper identification. It also means that later on, the burden of proof as to whether or not a voter’s cast ballot is legal, can be certified, and therefore can be counted rests on the state rather than putting the responsibility on the voter.  While election judges can issue challenge forms, in EJ training the process for what form to use, how to use it etc. was not covered. Raising concerns about a voter’s eligibility and the use of challenge forms by election judges is discouraged.  

Poll Watchers are prohibited from calling into question those people who show no eligibility to vote.

Voter Rolls – How often is the database of registered voters cleared of people who are no longer registered?

Voter Registration

New Era is an organization that helps young people register to vote. Turnout for 18-34 year-olds statewide are the largest voting bloc in Colorado with 27% of the vote share. New Era expanded access to voter registration and voting on college campuses is lifting up the entire youth vote by making our election more accessible. Passing the Colorado Votes Act in 2019 was critical to expanding access for young people by having drop boxes and voter service centers on almost all campuses. While encouraging youth to vote is great, there are allegations that New Era has bribed students to vote with pizza while at the same time campaigning for particular ballot initiatives like  Colorado Votes Act, Student Loan Servicer Accountability Act, Climate Action Plan.

VOTE Center VULNERABILITIES:

1. Electioneering at CU – 100 ft limit not enforced at all entry doors;
3. In person vs. mail-in ballots:  When an EJ gives a voter their ballot, all in-person ballots will be flat sheets of paper.  In-person ballots have to be filled out on-site and are not to leave the voting center under any circumstances.  When a voter receives a mail-in ballot, the EJ folds the ballot to fit into the official envelope which makes it easy to tell which ballot a voter has received.  Mail-in ballots can be taken out of the voting center. 
4. IDs:  CU student IDs are acceptable forms of identification to register to vote and to vote, however there is no birthdate or address information on the IDs.  If a student looks too young to vote, raise a flag.  Election judges have been instructed to not overstep boundaries in terms of asking for additional ID to verify a voter’s eligibility.
5. Certified Birth Certificates: without any other form of ID (e.g. anything with a photo), birth certificates are an acceptable form of ID to vote.  While voters still have to fill out the VSPC form (legal document), election judges are instructed to accept this form of ID.  
6. Citizenship: Verifying citizenship is an “on your honor” system.  Again the VSPC form acts as a legal document which asks this question.  Election judges have been trained to call a lead in this situation.  However, on the flip side, EJs are also instructed to not turn voters away.  In training they explained that usually leads are able to explain the situation to a non-citizen that they aren’t eligible to vote but have issued ballots in the past, relying on the fact that in ePollbook and on the VSPC forms it’s clearly indicated that the person is a non-citizen.  EJs were assured that if “non-citizen” is checked on the VSPC form that it would be caught in ballot processing.  It’s our understanding that the ballot issued is a provisional ballot.  
7. Labels and VSPC sheets:  In the past, there have been issues with labels placed on VSPC sheets covering citizenship status information.  The way the VSPC sheets are designed this year, it appears this problem has been remedied.  Labels on VSPC sheets shouldn’t cover any voter information on the sheets.
8. CU students voting in home-state and at school:  There is very little election judges can do to verify whether or not an out-of-state student has voted twice in this case.  EJs can ask to confirm, but there’s no way to prove/disprove double voting. 
9. Citizensship Not Checked – Long list of acceptable IDs- many do not prove citizenship.

Voter to Go Vulnerabilities

Has this ever been looked into?

https://www.bouldercounty.org/elections/information/voting-locations/#replacement-ballots

VOTE PROCESSING VULNERABILITIES:

1. Poll watchers had delayed access – Poll watchers were delayed and informed that nothing was going on, although there was activity.
2. Election staff limited Poll Watchers access to various parts of election process –
3. Signature Verification: Signature verification is intended to insure the identity of the voter and to rule out fraud. Boulder Country has adopted a two tiered process involving Election Judges who look at every single signature. In the first phase (Tier 1) a single Election Judge compares the signature on the ballot envelop with the signature on file in the database. Any questionable signatures are then sent to Tier Two, where two Election Judges, a Democrat and a Republican together, analyze e whether signatures are valid or to be “cured”.
   1. Poll watchers observed that, very roughly, about 5% of signatures at Tier 1 were quesstionable and needed further review. This matched the rate at which some Election Judges sent signatures to more in depth review.
   2. Some election judges, however, verified every single signature, even though poll watchers found some ssignaatures wildly different and in need of more scrutiny.
   3. Poll watchers were perplexed as to why only a single election judge is required to judge the first tier of signature verifications.
   4. Notebooks being reviewed by staff; told possibly needed to be handed over
   5. Poll Watchers were dismissed for not handing notebook to paid staff.
   6. Some Election Judges did not caarefully analyze the ssignatures by magnifying them. Instead, they accepting most every signature. Seemed more prevalent towards the end of the election
   7. Leads advised Election Judges whether to accept or reject signatures.
4. Scanning Room – Ballots are scanned for tabulation in a separrate room.
   1. Poll watcher had limited to watching through a window  
   2. Some poll watchers were denied access to the scanning room, while others were told they could have limited access.
   3. Only one person at eaach scanning machine.
   4. Not evident if the operators scanning the ballots were bi-partisan.
5. Adjudication Room – access limited to watching through a window
6. Poll Watcher Guidelines Were Revised after required submission date. 
   1. inserted a paragraph that gave election staff the right to search watcher notebook after required submission date 
   2. inserted a paragraph that gave election staff the right to search watcher notebooks

Ballot Box vulnerabilities: 

ARE BOULDER’S DROP BOXES REALLY THE GOLD STANDARD? by William B. DeOreo, 23 Jun, 2022.

On June 22nd and 23rd, Bill DeOreo visited the 8 drop boxes in Boulder and Gunbarrel to determine how secure they were. The criteria were for location, lighting, camera coverage, and notice placement. What he found was less than ideal.

Ballot boxes:  There are two types of ballot boxes.  Silver and Blue.  Silver are for in-person ballots.  Blue are for mail-in ballots.  The slots on the boxes prevent in-person ballots from being deposited into a mail-in ballot box, and vice versa.  EJs were trained to know that there has to be a ballot box judge monitoring both in-person and mail-in ballot boxes. 

All ballot boxes: should be sealed with a special lock that is tracked.  Only leads can lock the ballot boxes due to the lock tracking system called BBTS.  Once a ballot box is full, the leads seal the ballot box and bring out a new empty ballot box which starts the new locking/tracking system.

Ballot box security, storage, and transportation process:  Election Judges were never told where the ballot boxes were stored on-site, what type of security is used to keep the ballot box area secured, how long ballot boxes remained on-site before being couriered by a bipartisan team to the vote processing center, etc.  Please ask to see this process and see what type of security is being used to keep ballots safe.  Are there cameras?  Who has access?  How is that access tracked?  Etc.  

Holding Room for “In Person” ballots – Ballots that were cast “In Person” at voting centers were collected in red ballot boxes. These were transported to the Voting Center to be stored in a separate room until all mail-in and drop-off boxes were processed and counted. Were these “In Person” ballots handled with both Republicans and Democrats present?

Poll Watchers were not allowed into the room where “In-Person” ballots were stored.

In-person ballots were not scanned upon receipt at ballot processing.

The room with “In Person” ballots was unlocked.

Ballot harvesting:

In 2020, Election Judges were told that the maximum number of ballots that can be dropped off in a mail-in-ballot box is 3.  If someone is dropping off more than 3, a form needs to be filled out.  (Some EJs said they were told the number is 10 ballots).  In training, EJs weren’t shown the form or instructed on how to manage the process for either allowing or not allowing multiple ballot drop-offs by a single person.  

The above is based on information provided by Holly Kasun, Emily Brake, Boulder County Elections, and various volunteer poll-watchers.

Database of Voter Fraud – 1,334 Proven cases.