AURORA | Adams County voters casting their ballots on Election Day contended with added security and precautions in new places — even at the ballot drop boxes in parking lots.
Teams of three county staffers or volunteers were positioned at each of the Adams County ballot drop boxes on Election Day, answering questions for voters and sometimes taking ballots from car windows to put them in the drop boxes.
Julie Jackson, a representative for the Adams County Clerk and Recorder’s office, said this is the first year the county has placed staff at all of the ballot drop boxes.
In an email, Jackson said the drop box monitors were placed “out of an abundance of caution.” They were there to provide customer service and added security and also to make sure that people dropping off their ballots could do so without interference or electioneering.
Adams County has 30 ballot drop boxes, from Westminster east to Brighton and Aurora.
The workers, many pulled from Adams County’s Motor Vehicle Department, were wrapped in blankets and huddled up in lawn chairs within feet of the drop boxes. Motor vehicle department tech Jamie Morales said she was grateful the weather Tuesday was clear, although it was windy and cool.
The county’s polling centers were especially busy on Tuesday.
Bruce Harrington, supervisor at the Voter Services Polling Center at Front Range Community College’s Westminster Campus said the center had a small line waiting when it opened at 7 a.m. By 9:10 a.m., they had accepted ballots from 71 voters on election day, and Harrington said the county said the 23 other locations around the county had accepted a total of 1,626 ballots at the same time.
Dan Williams, the troubleshooter at the polling center in the Adams County Human Services Center 11860 Pecos St., said that center had accepted more than 200 ballots by 10:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.
The county has posted a listing of polling center locations on its website, at https://adamscountycoelections.gov/vspcs that includes estimated wait times at all of the locations. As of 12:01 p.m. on Election Day, most locations said they had no wait times and those that did averaged about 10 minutes. The Human Services Center location was the outlier, with an estimated wait time of 120 minutes.