This year's presidential election is drawing record numbers of registered voters and requests for mail ballots and given rise to questions surrounding voter registration, which El Paso County officials say has been handled properly.

"Every day when I leave here I'm 100 percent confident that we've done everything possible to process each and every document that comes into this office, and I'm 100 percent confident in all the processes we have in place that every returned ballot is going to be counted if eligible," county election manager Liz Olson said Tuesday. "The election results are absolutely reliable."

More than 10,000 new voters registered with El Paso County in the final two days before Monday's deadline for the Nov. 4 election.

By late Monday, 17,103 more voters had registered in the county than in mid-October 2006, and 11,100 more than in late October 2004 for the last presidential election, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

The breakdown of Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters in the county has changed little since 2004, state records show. Republicans still outnumber Democrats 2-1, and unaffiliated voters comprise about 31 percent.

Secretary of State's Office spokesman Richard Coolidge said voter numbers will increase in coming days as counties report last-minute registrants that are being entered into the system this week.

He attributed the increase to a 2007 measure that allows voters to sign up as a permanent mail ballot voters.

"There also was a significant push to have people register for a mail-in ballot." he said. The drives have been held by political parties, organizations and county clerk's offices, he said.

Olson said there were 10 to 15 voter registration drives in El Paso County this year. In addition to new voters, the drives have also led to claims of irregularities.

Lee Wildenstein, a University of Colorado at Colorado Springs student who helped with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's Campaign for Change drive, said the drive registered 14 new voters but five Democrats among them weren't on the voter rolls.

Wildenstein did not accuse election officials of wrongdoing, but said, "We just know their voter registrations didn't get processed. The clerk's office didn't have any explanation. They just didn't have them."

He said the five were contacted and re-registered. "I'm glad I caught it before the deadline," he said.

Some have claimed Republican Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink tried to discourage Colorado College students from voting by issuing guidelines that said students might not be eligible to vote in Colorado if they are claimed as dependents on tax returns filed by parents who live out of state.

He later said a student who meets Colorado's residency requirements may register regardless of whether the student is claimed as a dependent on a tax return in another state.

Under state law, U.S. citizens 18 and older old who have lived in the state 30 days before the election are eligible to register.

Some problems have been a misunderstanding or mistake, Olson said.

Tom Pyszczynski, a longtime Democrat, went online to be sure he was still registered and found he wasn't, even though he's voted in every election.

"They spelled my name wrong," he said. "They left a ‘z' out of my name, and that was all it was."

Ayodele Carroo, director of the Community Voter Project that ran a nonpartisan minority voter registration drive in 10 states including Colorado, said 13,500 voters were signed up in Colorado Springs.

"We've heard informally that people have said they hadn't gotten their registration cards," she said. She noted project workers will match registrations with voter files, but results aren't yet available.

Olson said some voter registration forms aren't filled out completely, but anyone whose form lacks information is sent a letter about the problem. She said her office has sent out less than 1,000 such letters this election cycle.

"All of these documents are being entered by human beings," she said. "Misspellings could happen and could cause a problem when you look it up."

She said 12 temporary workers have been processing voter registrations.

Meantime, her office has mailed 121,000 mail ballots, about twice the number of the previous presidential election, and ballots are starting to be returned. About 3,200 arrived in her office Tuesday.

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Contact the writer: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazette.com

A GROWING TREND

About 1.1 million residents have requested mail-in ballots, a third of the state's 3.1 million registered voters and nearly twice the numbers who voted by mail in 2004 and 2006.

Statewide, 154,424 more people had registered as of Monday compared with the same date two years ago.

County clerks have removed more than 58,000 voters from voter rolls since January.

Nearly 31,000 had moved to another county or state, about 14,000 were duplicate registrations and nearly 8,000 had died. About 2,200 were canceled because they were felons.
Secretary of State's Office

VOTING BY MAIL

El Paso County election officials remind voters voting by mail to affix the correct postage when returning their ballot. The amount required is 59 cents, 17 cents more than first-class postage.

Mailed ballots must be received by the clerk's office by 7 p.m. Nov. 4.

Ballots may be mailed or dropped in ballot boxes at one of the three Clerk & Recorder's Office locations: Centennial Hall, 200 S. Cascade; Chapel Hills Mall, on the north side, next to J.C. Penney; Powers Boulevard, 5650 Industrial Place, southeast corner of Powers and Airport. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Registered voters have until 5 p.m. on Oct. 28 to request a mail ballot. Voters also have until 5 p.m. on Oct. 31, to complete the application and pick up a mail ballot at the downtown office in Centennial Hall.

For info: http://car.elpasoco.com/Election or call 575-VOTE.