By IVAN MORENO
Associated Press Writer
DENVER (AP) _ Few glitches were reported in Colorado voting Tuesday, thanks in large measure to a majority of registered voters who cast their ballots before Election Day
Election officials had expected one last rush of voters before the polls closed, but in the end it seems the longest waiting time for voters happened in the morning.
"Boy, the last hour of voting was very, very quiet. I was stunned," said Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Jack Arrowsmith.
"I think the overall impression we have of the voting experience in Colorado is very positive," said Jenny Flanagan, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, a voting rights group that monitored voting throughout the state.
Flanagan said Common Cause and another watchdog group, Election Protection, had received about 800 calls from Colorado voters, mostly about registration questions, but nothing major was reported.
"Of course there have been hiccups," Flanagan said.
One hiccup: Provisional ballots were being given out "wholesale" in some counties, including Denver and Arapahoe, at the first sign of trouble with a voter's registration, Flanagan said.
"We think that's problematic," she said. Provisional ballots are counted only after all other ballots are counted and only in instances where they can be verified as legitimate and would affect the outcome of a race.
In Denver, there was a rush of voters to the polls in the morning but wait times weren't a problem, said Richard Coolidge, spokesman for Colorado Secretary of State Mike Hoffman.
"I have heard of some waits in Douglas County, in Denver County and Arapahoe County, but nothing significant," Coolidge said, adding that the longest wait he heard about was 20 to 30 minutes.
Coolidge said they didn't hear of any big final waves last-minute voters or major problems. He said it's possible some counties won't have a final tally until late Tuesday or tomorrow because of the last mail-in ballots that were delivered.
Mail-in ballots typically take longer to process, he said.
While record turnout was expected in Colorado, most of the state had already voted by Tuesday. About 1.3 million people voted by mail and another 365,000 cast their votes at early vote locations, accounting for 53 percent of registered voters.
"It has gone much better than 2006," said Denver elections spokesman Alton Dillard, harkening back to a year when Denver used vote centers where anyone could go to cast a ballot, instead of to designated precincts. A malfunction with the electronic poll book triggered long wait times that year.
At one Denver location Tuesday, a portion of a poll book was not delivered. Voters had to wait for it or cast a provisional ballot, Dillard said. The missing list was delivered within 30 minutes, he said.
Few problems were reported in Douglas County, which along with Denver was put on a "watch list" by Coffman's office after their disastrous 2006 elections. Douglas County underestimated the number of voting machines it needed that year.
In Greeley, community activists raised concerns about lack of Spanish-language translators at the polls and the use of English-only ballots, but that never became huge problem.
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