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• Nov 14, 2006 6:07 pm US/Mountain
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  Gordon Concedes Secretary Of State Race To Coffman

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Gordon Concedes Secretary Of State Race To Coffman

DENVER (AP) ― Democrat Ken Gordon conceded the secretary of state race to Republican Mike Coffman on Tuesday, a full week after an election marred by massive problems and an agonizingly slow tally.

Coffman, the state treasurer, held a 27,457-vote lead over Gordon in unofficial statewide results compiled by The Associated Press.

"I want to congratulate Treasurer Coffman on winning the secretary of state race. It was a clean campaign, well argued on both sides, and I think he's going to do a good job," Gordon said.

Coffman had 762,046 votes as of Tuesday afternoon in the AP's unofficial count and Gordon had 734,589. Some votes were still being counted.

Gordon, a state senator from Denver, will remain Senate majority leader and has vowed to work with Coffman for election-law changes to avoid a repeat of the problems that dogged the Nov. 7 election.

In addition to the counting delays, many voters had to wait for hours to cast ballots on Election Day, and some reportedly gave up without voting.

The problems were blamed on computer slowdowns, equipment failures, a long and complicated statewide ballot and a switch by many big counties to voting centers from the traditional precinct model.

After the vote, some Denver ballots had to be hand-sorted because bar codes that were supposed to aid in the sorting process were incorrectly printed.

A shake-up was already under way in Denver.

Wayne Vaden, one of three members of the Denver Elections Commission, submitted his resignation to Mayor John Hickenlooper on Tuesday, saying, "I accept my fair share of responsibility for the problems experienced in the recent election."

City Auditor Dennis Gallagher has proposed changing the city charter to overhaul the elections commission. It currently consists of two elected members and one appointed by the mayor. Gallagher wants the city to have a single elected clerk and recorder.

Vaden held the appointed position on the commission.

Anthony Rainey, the election commission's technology chief, has been placed on "administrative investigative leave."

Hickenlooper named a panel to investigative what went wrong, and its first meeting was scheduled Wednesday.

In Douglas County, where a shortage of voting machines forced some people to wait for hours to cast ballots, the county commissioners said they would form an 11-member panel to assess the problems.

(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)