CLERKING AND RECORDING IN BOULDER COUNTY

Hillary Hall, Boulder County Clerk and Recorder, reminds us that local governments provide a variety of essential services that we need, but often take for granted.

Hall told Boulder Rotary Club this month that her office’s motto is, “We provide the best in public service.”

The Clerk and Recorder’s office takes care of three clusters of duties:

·         Registering and licensing motor vehicles in the county.

·         Permanent recording of real estate transactions, marriages, divorces and other public records.

·         Conducting elections for cities, the county itself, and the state – including federal elections.

“Motor vehicles are more than automobiles,” Hall said. Motorized equipment, for example, is also licensed. More than 200,000 motor vehicles in the community provide some $50 million annually in fees and taxes. All of that data must be kept current each day.

Boulder County maintains records on real estate and other permanent records that go back to the 1860s, with more than 10 million recorded documents currently on hand and available for inspection.

But the most controversial element of the office is likely the Clerk's responsibility for elections. That starts with keeping track of the many changes in voting procedures resulting from Federal requirements, some caused by the increasing numbers of voters. Boulder County currently has 219,221 registered voters, Hall said, with about 160,000 voting in the most recent election.

One of the recent changes, Hall said, "is the incorporation of voter rolls for all 64 Colorado counties into a single state system, thus facilitating our tracking of voters who move from one county to another."

Other changes include making registration easier. Voters can now sign up at motor vehicle offices, at the Clerk's office in person, or online.

One of the biggest challenges is that each voter must be tracked in multiple districts, she said, “For example, home precinct, school board area, special bonding districts."

This means the Clerk's office must prepare multiple ballots for election-day delivery to the correct polling places, and increasingly for individual delivery to voters by mail.

"Sixty-seven percent of voters in the 2008 election voted by mail," Hall said.

Mass use of mail ballots also has raised issues about the secrecy of an individual's vote. The voter’s signature is required to verify that the ballot is legitimate, and it is compared with the signature on file before the ballot is accepted. Even though the signed envelope and the ballot are then separated, there is still a possibility someone could notice who voted for what.

In addition, various checks help ensure that the tabulating machines are working properly and that the number of votes counted in the different ballot forms agree with the number of registered voters.

What might be in the election future? Hall expects that at the state level we will see same-day registration and voting, all-mail elections, and since this is 2010, changes in congressional and legislative districts from the decennial census.

But there are some things even a hard-working County Clerk cannot do.

Asked about the sometimes circuitous and confusing wording on ballot issues, Hall shook her head.

"I'm as frustrated as you are," she said. "The fact is that a County Clerk has no authority over the wording on ballots. Talk to the Legislature."

BOULDER ROTARY CLUB

5390 Manhattan Circle, Suite 101     Boulder, Colorado, 80303

303-554-7074                                                                                      Rotary@roycearbour.com

NEWS FROM BOULDER ROTARY CLUB

Contact: Sue Deans, 303-579-9580

For more information on Rotary, see  www.boulderrotary.org or www.rotary.org.