A clerical error at the Montezuma County Clerk’s office has resulted in special election ballots being sent to people of less-than-legal voting age.
Montezuma County Clerk Kim Percell tells KSJD the voter registration list her office sent to the Mancos and High Desert Conservation Districts mistakenly included names of underage voters. The districts are each proposing a mill levy increase in special elections scheduled May 8th.
A 2013 Colorado law allows people over age 16 but younger than 18 to pre-register to vote. The clerk’s office documents their information, but they are not allowed to actually vote before they turn 18.
Percell says her office forgot to remove the pre-registrants’ names from the voter lists before sending them to the districts. She explains the underage recipients could fill out and send in their ballots with no consequences, but their votes would simply not count.
Dwight Shellman with the Colorado State Elections Division tells KSJD the problem is very minor. He says the clerk’s office can either identify each ineligible voter or the districts can remove ineligible ballots as they’re counted.
Victoria Petersen Lewis at the High Desert Conservation District tells KSJD her office found out about the error a few days after the ballots had already been mailed. They have hired an attorney, and they will decide how to move forward soon. On Wednesday, Gretchen Rank of the Mancos Conservation District said her office had not yet been formally notified of the problem. But on Thursday, Percell said both districts had received lists of the ineligible voters.
