Republicans and Democrats have long been concerned about how the vote will shake out in Arapahoe County — one of the key swing counties in an undecided state — and now they have one more thing to fear: an “I Voted” sticker. More than 230,000 ballots last week were mailed to Arapahoe County’s voters in envelopes that possibly contained a participation sticker that rubbed up against the ballot and in some cases left a faint, near-linear mark that appeared exactly where voters draw a line to select their candidates.
Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder Nancy Doty said the marks are so faint that the scanning machine that tabulates the votes does not detect any of them. “We have tested the ballots, and it doesn’t have any effect on the tabulation,” Doty said. “I am confident that it has no effect on the voters ballot.”
The situation occurs in a tossup county where 104,896 active voters are Democrats, 99,866 are Republican and 100,164 are unaffiliated. It has swung between being Democratic and Republican. And its voters tend to turn out in big numbers. “This county may be one of the most important counties in the election,” said political analyst Floyd Ciruli. “If our nine electoral votes decide the president, this county is going to play a big role.”
Full Article: “I Voted” sticker in Arapahoe County mail may rub some the wrong way – The Denver Post.