Elections Division
LOCATE IT!
Find city services near your home or business.
 Director's Notebook Minimize
Follow our progress as we plan for the 2008 elections. On this page I will post regular updates on what's going on at the Denver Elections Division.
 
Preparing for an election is a much bigger job than you might think, and it takes a dedicated staff many months of effort. There are election judges to recruit and train, voter registration records to continually update, potential polling places to survey, inspect, prepare and equip, ballots to design and print, voting machinery to inspect, software systems to maintain and test, public outreach to conduct, and many other elements that go into creating a successful electoral process. And on top of that, the Elections Division is preparing to move to a new location, tentatively in May -- a significant undertaking in any year, let alone while planning for a presidential election.
 
The Elections Division has in fact been working through a momentous set of changes. Voters approved a City Charter change in early 2007 creating an elected Clerk and Recorder to oversee elections. This change repealed the former Elections Commission and created the Elections Division within the Office of the Clerk and Recorder. Stephanie O'Malley took office in July as Denver's first elected Clerk and Recorder, and she hired me in August to be her Elections Director. You can read my strategic plan for reorganizing the Elections Division in the links to the right. One of the things you will see in the coming weeks is a new website that will make it much easier to find elections information.
      

   Minimize

 
 
Michael Scarpello
Denver Elections Director
      

 Mike's Columns Minimize
5/8/08 - You may have been seeing or reading news coverage lately about the new statewide voter registration system, called SCORE. SCORE got it's first real-world workout last week. Counties gave it a road test in a mock election, orchestrated by the Secretary of State's Office.

4/23/08 - Along with getting ready for the 2008 elections and moving to a new building this year, the Elections Division is involved in a much more fundamental endeavor: re-inventing itself.
 
4/14/08 - Have you wondered how we select polling places? Today's column looks at that process.
 
4/4/08 - A successful election is truly a group effort. If you are a registered voter in Denver, please consider becoming one of the people so essential to the effort.

4/1/08 - This election season did not have a routine start to it. On December 17, 2007, Colorado's secretary of state decertified or conditionally certified most of the elections machinery that counties use to conduct elections. The governor and legislative leaders mounted an effort to have all counties conduct paper ballot elections. That effort was unsuccessful after the secretary of state received new authority and recertified all voting equipment. Voters have understandably had a lot of confusion, but none of the upheaval affected our elections plans here in Denver. And that's the subject of today's column. 
 
      

 More Information Minimize
      

3-1-1 Home