January 22, 2007 11:52 PM UTC

Stop the Election!

• 2 Comments
• by: LJo

Jan Tyler, former Denver Election Commissioner, is reportedly in district court today asking a judge to halt Denver’s special election.

Tyler, who opposes the ballot measure, contends that the “integrity of Denver’s election depends on a questionable voter list and a signature verification system that does not work.”

News today that Sequoia Voting Systems mailed 3,500 Denver ballots to incorrect addresses was the last straw for Tyler.  “This election needs to be stopped until the city can get more controls in place,” she says.

Tyler claims that the DEC’s signature verification system, which protects against vote fraud, has not been publicly tested and, by some accounts, does not work. Former DEC employees say that the system was created and maintained by Anthony Rainey, the embattled DEC employee who was placed on investigative leave after an Election Day computer meltdown drove thousands of voters from the polls.

Tyler says that Rainey also supervised the maintenance of Denver’s voter list.  She is concerned that there is no written documentation regarding when voter lists were updated or how they were maintained since 2003.

Tyler also wants the Denver Election Commission to provide a complete list of the more than 13,000 voters added to the rolls between October 10 and December 29, 2006, along with proof that these additional voters are indeed eligible to vote in the special election.

For the November election, Denver had 273,828 active registered voters. A total of 290,500 ballots have been put into circulation for the special election. Tyler claims that this “glut of unsecured ballots” coupled with a faulty signature verification system is “a recipe for vote fraud.”

Tyler also notes that many ballots were mailed to voters’ old addresses.

“We need to stop everything until the signature verification system can be tested, repaired and independently certified as functional,” Tyler says. “Otherwise, this election is a sham.”