HomeMy WebLinkAbout760693.tiff •
MINUTES
WELD COUNTY COUNCIL
November 17, 1976
The Weld County Council met in regular session in full conformity
with the Weld County Home Rule Charter at 401 N. 15th Avenue,
Greeley, Colorado, on Wednesday, November 17, 1976 at the hour of
two o'clock.
ROLL CALL: The meeting began with an invocation by John T. Martin. On roll
call the following were present:
President John T. Martin
Vice President Nancy Clark
Councilman Floyd Oliver
Councilman Bob E. White
Councilman Robert Martin
Also present: Secretary Bonnie Hickman.
MINUTES: Floyd Oliver made a motion, seconded by Bob Martin, to accept the
minutes of November 3, 1976. Motion carried.
REPORTS The Council dispensed with the regular reports.
1977 ELECTION PROBLEMS AND CONCERNS: The purpose of this meeting was to
allow county citizens to voice their concerns regarding the
proceedings of the November 2 election. The Council invited the
democratic and republican party chairmen and four precinct judges;
Mr. James Hallock, Director of Data Processing at Aims; and
Mr. Jeff Samson, Director of City of Greeley's Data Processing.
Also in attendance were representatives from Diamond International
(manufacturers of the Data Vote system) ; Mrs. Mary Ann Feuerstein,
Chief Deputy Clerk and Recorder; Leon Dlug, Director of Data
Processing; and the Deputy Clerk and Recorder, Wanda Hughes.
Previous to this meeting, the Council met with Mrs. Feuerstein
and Mr. Dlug a few days after the election to discuss with them the
problems they encountered. As a result of that meeting, the Council
requested Mrs. Feuerstein and Mr. Dlug present in written form their
comments made to the Council. These comments were read at the November
17 meeting. Mrs. Feuerstein listed the following solutions: have the
canvas board check and verify writeins; proper ballot card design;
larger ballot boxes; thorough pre-testing of the computer before count-
ing; and seeking relief from the federal bilingual requirement.
Mr. Dlug stated that the main problem in the computer center was that
upon entering damaged cards into the computer, the whole operation was
stopped until the damaged card could be recreated and reinserted. At
that time they assumed that a restart would cancel the previously
760693
•
County Council Page 2
November 17, 1976
counted ballots. Mr. Dlug found fault with the Data Vote programming
manual which did not define the restart procedure after encountering
these damaged cards. This problem has been solved. He made one re-
commendation to have the software improved so as to increase the over-
all processing speed of the card reader and its relationship with the
printer. He assumed that if everything ran successfully, the final
returns would have been made available after seven the following morning.
After comments by the Council members, the meeting was then opened to
citizen comments and suggestions.
Regarding the reader speed of the computer, Mr. Hallock of Aims remark-
ed that 450 cards a minute is a common speed and it is rare that a card
reader is pushed at maximum speed of 1000 per minute.
Several stated that a delay in voter results was caused by counting the
absentee ballots after all other ballots were counted. They suggested
the ballots be counted during election day.
The precinct judges voiced their concerns. The following is a list of
those discussed: unstable voting booths; the card must be punched
exactly on the "x"; the elderly were embarrassed to return their damaged
cards; not enough judges at the polls; many judges were not able to
attend the school of instruction; there were no written instructions as
to the procedure for counting writein votes; the voting machine was too
difficult to use; voter booths did not provide enough privacy for some;
the ballot was lengthy; some suggested putting a stub on the envelope
instead of the ballots; the instruction of use picture in the booth was
inaccurate.
Two representatives from the Data Vote corporation were also present
and commented on their equipment. One commented that the computer
problems did not have to exist since they gave the county computer
center a list of twelve people to contact in case of difficulty - but
none were contacted. They also added that a cause of inaccurate card
punching was a result of a ten thousandths of an inch mistake in print-
ing the cards.
Solutions to some of these problems were discussed and many felt con-
fident that the next election would go much better. It was felt that
a report of suggestions be sent to the election department for their
evaluation.
A meeting was scheduled the following day for the Council to discuss
and plan their response to this meeting.
The meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Bonnie Hickman, Secretary APPROVED )29
Hello