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Printable Lifitle confusian, higher turnout with mail bailots JOHN COLSpN, Attachment C Page 1 af 1 Mail-orily etections in Garfield and Eagle counties apparently caused fitt[e confusion and may have helped raise voter turnout. Officials reported oniy a sma[l number Qf voters in Garfield and Eagle countie� puzzled �bout what to do and where to �o in this week's mail-onCy electian praCess, a rnethod that's �aining in popularity across the state and nation. "We had a few people upset," Garfield Courtty Clerk Mildred Alsdarf said. "I wauld say we didn't have more than half a dqzen." At�d rr�ast of thase, she said, were at the sakellite clerk's office in Rifle. Aisdorf said about 250 of the 1,500 vaters who came into the derk's office either in Rifle or the main �ourthouse in Gle�wood Springs were there to request repEacement batlots or because they had moved and ne�er received their ballots in t�e mail. The rest were there to drop off their bal�ots instead of mailing them. ln Carbondale, according [o receptionist Sharrdey Page, ti�ere were a few confused voters. But To+ivn Clerk Marcia Walter said there were fewer than six. 5he said most of those who came in were °thinkin� it was an either-or option:" to vate by mail or �o to the pollin� place. "1 told therri, 'Sorry, it's a maif batlot,"` and that they had to go to the county clerk's office in G(enwood Springs to �et a replacement batlot. In Eagle County, where the hallot also was mail-anly, Clerk Teak Sirr�ontpn said the result was similar co Chat in Garfield Coun ty: "There was some confusion," she said. "�here were se�erat hundred voters who asked, 'Whar is a mait-in ballaf?"' she said. "There was a very smatl �roup of vaters that wasn't aware of what was going on." At Basalt's Toivn Hall, one of the places v+ih�re £a�le Coursty voters in �he Roarirr� Fork ValLey are used to �oing on eleetion day, very few vqters shawed up in confusior�. "f had, like, t�+vo," said Towr� Clerk Pam 5chitling. She said she sent them to Che Ea�Ee County Communrty Center in El Jebe� to p€ck up replacement baltots. This was 5imonton's first time r�an.aging a mail-only electian, she said. She estima�ed tF�e costs were abaut 20 percent [ower than a poltin�-place electior�, And, she said, "Lo�istica!(y, 1 t€�ink it's easier for the voter," whic� could be part of the r2ason both Eagle and Garfield counties had better' vot�r turnau� than Pit�cin Caunty. Ea�le and Garfield turnaut was 43 percen� and 45 percent, respectively. Pitkin's was 29 percent. "Mail-in always gets a better turnout in odd-year elections," Pitk.in County Clerk and Recqrder Sitvia Qavis said. Pitkin County's one attempt at a maif-only electian in the mid-1990s resulted in a fair number of camplaints from voters. The county has since relied primarily on Election Day palling. John Calson's e-m.ail address is jcolson�aspentimes.com h ttp: //www. aspen tim es. com / a pps / pbes. dl l/ artide?AI D=/20051104/ N.EWS/ 111040032 �ttemp late=p rin.tart Copyright 20D9 AU ai�hts Reserved http:llvvw�.aspentimes.comlappslpbcs.dll/article?AID-120051104INEWS1111040032&template=p... 2/2/2009