Secretary Of State Opposes Keeping Polls Open Later

DENVER (CBS4)- Secretary of State Wayne Williams opposes keeping the polling places open later because he said no one missed an opportunity to vote. A judge ruled that the polls will close at 7 p.m. as scheduled.

"We oppose that because it changes the rules of the process that were established long ago. The rules already establish what happens during that outage and that is that individuals have the opportunity to cast a provisional ballot, so nobody lost an opportunity to vote because of this," said Williams.

The issue to keep the polling places open past 7 p.m. stems from a voter database disruption from earlier in the day Tuesday when voters were unable to cast ballots in person from 2:47 p.m. to 3:16 p.m.

Voters could drop off ballots that had been completed or were given the option to vote with a provisional ballot.

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Clerks were not able to process mail ballots if the signature had not been verified. Those with verified signatures could be processed during that time.

"Most Coloradans actually choose to vote by mail, the overwhelming majority of them have already turned those ballots in before today even began. But for those who did wait until the last minute they still have an opportunity to vote throughout the process of the short outage," said Williams.

Voting continued as planned at polling places across Colorado once the system was back online. The state Democratic party planned to go to court to keep the polls open an additional two hours to make up for the outage.

Williams opposed extending the polling hours. He said it was unnecessary.

"We oppose changing the rules of the process at this point. We think it's important for the integrity of the process to maintain those rules and as I've said, everyone has had the opportunity to vote, either by mail ballot or throughout the day even during the outage," said Williams.

Those in line by 7 p.m. would be allowed to cast a ballot but the polls would not stay open later. There were some long lines at some polling places across the Denver metro area.