RECORDERS NOTES
By Delisa Weeks
Kiowa County Clerk and Recorder
Election Information:
Know the Facts for Colorado!
To register to vote in Colorado, a Coloradan must confirm their identity and eligibility by providing a Colorado driver’s license number or the last four of their social security number.at the time of registration.
For Colorado voters who vote by mail ballot, identity is confirmed through the review of the voter’s signature. For a small number of first-time voters who vote by mail ballot, in limited circumstances, they will also need to provide a copy of acceptable ID with their ballot.
For Coloradans voting in-person, identity is confirmed by reviewing the voter’s ID at the voting center. Therefore, before any ballot in Colorado is counted, the identity of the voter who cast the ballot is confirmed.
Ensuring the Identity of the Voter
Identity Verification for Mail Ballot Voting. All returned mail ballots must include the voter’s signature on the outside of the envelope. When the ballot is received, those signatures are compared to signatures stored for each voter in the voter registration database (known as SCORE).
The comparison is done using advanced signature verification software or trained election judges of multiple political affiliations. If the comparison finds a match, the ballot is counted. If a signature does not match those on file, it moves to a second level of review, where a bipartisan team of election judges reviews the signature. The bipartisan team determines whether the signature should be accepted or rejected, based on criteria implemented signature verification guide provided by the office of the Colorado Secretary of State.
Only One Ballot Per Voter is Accepted.
Colorado’s statewide voter registration and election management system is a real-time system that tracks whether a voter has already submitted a ballot for counting. Because the system is in real-time, once a ballot has been accepted for any voter in the state, no other ballot for that voter would be accepted by the system.
For instance, if a voter is mailed a ballot but votes in-person instead, the mail ballot is automatically voided and will not be counted. The same is true for voters who move, misplace, or otherwise receive a replacement ballot. Only one ballot will be counted by the county clerk. A voter who attempts to vote twice in any election is referred by the county clerk to the local district attorney for investigation. If convicted, there are penalties under state and federal law for attempting to vote twice.
Is my ballot envelope processed or counted differently depending on if I turn it in on election day or any time before election day?
NO, ballot envelopes are processed and counted the exact same way no matter which day you return it to the election’s office.
Only thing that waiting until election day does is hold up results from being released.
For Election questions you can contact the Kiowa County Clerk and Recorder’s Office at 719-438-5421 or email: delisa.weeks@state.co.us.