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Sep 27, 2006 9:07 am US/Mountain
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Denver Shelves Part Of Voting System After Problem
DENVER (AP) ―
Denver city election officials say key components of an electronic voting system won't be used in the November election because of problems they caused in the August primary.
The decision, announced Monday, intensified a battle within city hall over whether the second-hand parts were lemons that should be returned for a refund.
The city paid $35,000 to buy 50 of the devices, called card activators, from Chicago, which sold them after a trouble-filled election in March. The devices produce cards programmed to make sure voters get the correct ballot on electronic voting machines, but they were blamed for loading wrong ballots in Denver's primary.
City Auditor Dennis Gallagher wrote a letter to the Denver Election Commission last week saying the devices "may be flawed and not operable." He demanded to know what went wrong and who was responsible.
On Monday, Gallagher spokesman Denis Berckefeldt accused election officials of lying about the devices and warned the auditor could block payment for them.
Election Director John Gaydeski accused Gallagher of spreading "misinformation."
Election officials insisted the devices were sound and said the deal had saved the city $10,000. They blamed the primary problems on poorly trained poll workers and human error and said there wasn't enough time for adequate training before the Nov. 7 election.
Officials will manually program the electronic voting machines in November, rather than relying on the cards, Election Commission spokesman Alton Dillard said.
It wasn't immediately clear whether another attempt would be made to use the devices.
Denver City Council members said they had not known the card activators were used when they approved the purchase of the entire system in May.
"I definitely have never heard that," Councilwoman Carol Boigon said.
All the other components of the $1.4 million system were new.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)