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Garfield County voting equipment demos Wednesday, Thursday

Staff report

Garfield County will be demonstrating new voting equipment that’s under consideration for use locally, today in Glenwood Springs and Thursday in Rifle.

Voters can check out Clear Ballot’s ClearVote system, which, according to a county news release, is described as a versatile and accessible system for election officials.

“The Clear Ballot voting system will be presented as a 2019 budget request to the Garfield Board of County Commissioners. If approved, the equipment will be used for 2019 elections.



The demonstrations take place from 2-5 p.m. Wednesday in the Board of County Commissioners meeting room, 108 Eighth St., in Glenwood Springs; and from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday in the first floor conference room at the Garfield County Administration Building in Rifle, 195 W. 14th St., Building D.

ClearVote is designed so that, in the case of close elections, results can be audited quickly and accurately, according to the county news release.



The Clear Ballot voting system was also certified for use in Colorado by the Colorado Secretary of State in December 2017.

The paper-based voting system creates a digitally scanned ballot, which is reviewed for accuracy, and then quickly tallies results. The system can be operated on any touch-screen device, allowing voters to cast ballots at an official Voter Service and Polling Center, and have them quickly converted to a paper ballot.

“For mail-in ballots, ClearVote helps election judges assess voter intent by analyzing the marks on the ballot,” the county release explains.

Garfield County Clerk and Recorder Jean Alberico said the ClearVote system allows local clerk’s offices to design their own ballots in house, and to send an extract to a local printer for ballot printing.

“After participating with seven other counties that piloted four different voting systems in 2015, and comparing the two voting systems that are currently certified for use in Colorado, my staff and I like ClearVote, and want to show that product off to the public,” Alberico said.


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