Technology isn’t yet ready to allow voting on your smartphone, Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams said Tuesday during a visit to Durango.
“Right now, the technology isn’t sufficiently secure for that,” he said during an interview with The Cortez Journal’s editorial board.
In commercial applications, Williams said, “There are security breaches occasionally. We’re just not there yet.”
Before the 2014 election, Colorado went to all-mail balloting with election centers rather than polling stations. Many observers declared the new system a resounding success.
Williams said elections officials are working to update existing technology and tighten procedures ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
“Elections equipment is aging in the state of Colorado,” he said. “Denver just had to reinstall Windows 7 because the elections equipment was certified on Windows 7.”
Williams is in Durango for the Colorado County Clerks Association 2015 Summer Conference. The event began Monday and will continue through Wednesday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds and Durango Community Recreation Center.
On Tuesday, the atmosphere at the Fairgrounds was, as one might expect, subdued. In one conference room, attendees learned about changes to Colorado law from the recent legislative session. Many of the changes were seemingly arcane matters, such as the process for vesting real-estate titles.
Colorado clerks and recorders run elections, register motor vehicles and record property transactions, among many other tasks.
Kim Percell, clerk and recorder for Montezuma County, said it’s rewarding to get together with her colleagues. “I absolutely love it,” she said.
So, what makes a good county clerk?
“They have to be big-picture people but excellent leaders,” said Mary Whitley, chief deputy clerk in Arapahoe County. “They have to gain the trust of their constituents.”
On Election Day, clerks may start work at 5 a.m. and quit at 3 a.m., only to return a few hours later to reopen the office.
A long list of contractors were on hand at the conference to hawk their products and services. David Moreno, director of product delivery at Ballottrax, a Denver-based company that tracks ballots for three populous Colorado counties, said the county clerks are a tight-knit group.
“Most people here, it’s been 10 years coming to these conferences,” Moreno said. “It’s very interesting. Most (county clerks) are very smart people. We get a lot of questions at our booth.”
cslothower@durangoherald.com