County Elections Department will learn from Election Day issues, administrator says

El Paso County broke voter turnout records this election season. Along with all that voting, also came a few problems at the polls.

The County Elections Department told ABC-7 its staff learned from Tuesday’s mistakes and problems.

Elections Administrator Lisa Wise told ABC-7 her office got about a dozen calls regarding issues at polling stations. Nearly 150 polling places were set up across the county on Election Day

Wise said hundreds also called with more basic questions like where and how to vote.

The elections department has been working on setting up a call tracking system, but didn’t have it ready in time for Election Day.

Wise said most calls concerned a card encoder issue in Vinton. The staff was not able to program the card that allows voters to use the electronic voting machines. Staff had to issue paper ballots while crews fixed the problem

There was also confusion about proper voting identification at Zach White Elementary. Election staff was reportedly telling voters they could not vote if they did not have the paper voter registration card sent in the mail.

Wise said informed voters corrected Elections Department staff and the issue was resolved. She blamed the confusion on frequent changes regarding ID requirements, at least 3 times over the last 18 months, but also acknowledged human error played a role.

“We want to make sure that we limit whatever we can and then address it as soon as possible,” Wise said. “So I’m sure we will revisit the ID. I think the ID training was good. We went basically by what the secretary of state had sent on the last send, you know, the last go-around, because that did change.”

Elections workers are now working to finalize ballots, and there’s a process for the provisional ballots still to come.

The review process will run through Monday, 6 days after the election. During that time, county staff will be clearing up any issues and checking identification.

Wise told ABC-7 the county is working to set up Election Day voting centers for the next election, where anyone in the county would be able to vote, regardless of precinct.