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Boulder County, Colo. -- The final
official results from Boulder County’s 2016 General Election are available now
at www.BoulderCountyVotes.org. Boulder County experienced 89% voter turnout of
active, eligible voters.
The final
official results include the Statement of
Votes, a document that shows precinct-by-precinct results for every issue
on Boulder County ballots for this General Election. The certified Statement of Votes will be forwarded to
the Colorado Secretary of State’s office to become part of the official
statewide election record.
Last week, elections
staff completed the 2016 General Election audit, a post-election quality
assurance test that ensures the accuracy of the machine tally of votes. The
audit used this year compared a manual tally of votes with the actual
election-night machine tally of the same ballots. Any discrepancy is researched
and resolved. A final report was issued to the Boulder County Canvass Board for
verification prior to election certification.
Additionally,
elections staff also completed the reconciliation process. This process
provides the data, reports, and documentation for the Canvass Board to certify
that the number of votes counted is equal to or less than the number of ballots
cast and that the number of ballots cast is equal to or less than the number of
eligible voters.
Despite the
fact that there were no discrepancies found in the audit or reconciliation that
impacted the outcome of any contest, the two republican party members of the
Canvass Board declined to sign the documentation that the election was
conducted accurately. This decision does not impact that the election results
are now certified.
“It is a complete disservice to our community and to the
hundreds of election judges and staff members who have invested thousands of
hours planning and conducting our election to use the certification process as
a vehicle to promote a personal agenda, which is what today’s action was,”
stated Hillary Hall, Boulder Clerk and Recorder. “Election after election this
same cohort of individuals use their position on the canvass board to express
their political dissatisfaction with the Colorado election process and mail
ballot elections. Not only is it in violation of the oaths they take when joining
the canvass board, but there is absolutely no evidence to back up their erroneous
claims. We conduct our election reconciliation and audit as Colorado election
law and Secretary of State rule dictate, with reports that clearly show the
election results are accurate, and yet they refuse to sign the certification
after each election. The place to address their objections over the Colorado
elections process is with the state legislature and our law makers. Their
actions are without merit and baseless.”
By Secretary of State Rule, if nothing found in the audit
or reconciliation of the election impacts the outcome of the election, the
results must be certified. There were no documented discrepancies found in the
audit or the reconciliation that impacted the outcome of any contest.
The Boulder County Canvass Board reviewed the final audit
and reconciliation election documents on Tuesday afternoon. This year’s Canvass
Board consisted of Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Hillary Hall; Cathy
Jarrett and Al Kolwicz representing the Republican Party; and Paul Geissler and
Pat Feeser representing the Democratic Party.
The canvass and audit documentation, and the Statement
of Votes will be available by late Wednesday morning at: http://www.bouldercounty.org/elections/results/pages/electionresults2016.aspx.
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