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Should the district attorney in Boulder County, who is limited to two terms, be allowed to run for a third term?
Yes 29,966
No 29,957
Boulder County voters narrowly approved a ballot measure that extends the term limits for the district attorney from two terms to three, a recount has confirmed.
The recount found that five votes -- four "yes" votes and one "no" vote -- should not have been counted originally because the ballots were either undervotes or overvotes.
In some cases, the voter rested his or her pencil by one of the choices -- making a mark that was picked up by scanners -- but hadn't actually voted. In other cases, the voter had made a mark between the two choices that strayed into one box or the other, or both.
That left the final tally at 29,966 votes in favor of the measure and 29,957 votes against the measure, a difference of just nine votes.
The Boulder County canvass board certified the results of the recount at 2 p.m. Friday.
Boulder County elections have had problems in the past with scanners counting stray marks or even paper dust as votes. Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall said all the ballots are visually inspected on election night, but the stray marks that resulted in the five mistaken votes weren't noted until the recount process.
Election watchdog Al Kolwicz said he wasn't especially concerned that five votes out of 63,275 ballots were miscounted.
"There should be no reason for the machine to miscount any ballots, but with the way people mark their ballots, anything is possible," he said.
Rather, he's concerned that the county doesn't do a thorough enough visual inspection of each ballot to identify ones that could be misread.
Kolwicz also thinks the county should redo the verification process for mail-in ballots before a recount. With such a close election, even a few ballots that were mistakenly included or excluded could change the result.
Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1994 that limited elected officials statewide to two consecutive four-year terms but allowed voters in local jurisdictions to override those limits. Four years ago, Boulder County voters approved potential third terms for the sheriff, coroner, assessor, surveyor, treasurer and clerk and recorder.
Proponents of the 2009 measure argued that the public benefits from having an experienced DA and should be able to return a prosecutor to office if he or she is doing a good job. Opponents said DAs are among the most powerful elected officials, and they need to be checked.
"They're politicians, and they want to get in office and stay there for as long as possible," said Dennis Polhill, chairman of the Colorado Term Limits Coalition, which put forward the statewide term limits amendment.
Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said he was pleased with the result, and it will give him more leverage when talking with more conservative DAs about statewide policy issues.
"I just need to work really hard so that if I want to run for re-election, I stand a shot," said Garnett, who is in his first term.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Erica Meltzer at 303-473-1355 or meltzere@dailycamera.com.
