Recorder’s Office releases voter report

For many voters, election season may seem like a thing of the past.

But for the Yuma County Recorder’s Office, election season never ends.

The Recorder’s Office recently presented a general election report to discuss what went well during the 2018 general election, and what can be improved in the planning for the next election.

Over the past 8 years, the number of registered voters has grown to now total over 87,000.

Robyn Pouquette, Yuma County recorder, said it worked well to know that there would be a higher voter turnout than expected than for a midterm election.

“We were prepared not only in early voting but in election day activities to make sure that we tackled that with a lot of efficient planning and be able to use all that we have learned and analyzed in past elections to make sure we accommodate voters,” she said.

However, a big issue that occurred this election season was a miscommunication by 3rd party voter groups.

Many voters created overtime hours for the registration office after turning in multiple registration forms.

Often times, these voters were told by party representatives, even by texts, that they had yet to register.

“We had difficulty with third parties that were holding voter registration drives in our community with all good intent, it seemed like many of the voters felt that every time they had contact with one of those groups, they filled out a new registration form,” Pouquette said.

Another issue that was experienced, was releasing public record voter documents to those party representative groups.

“We actually release reports to the recognized parties within the state and it includes a database of voters that are active within our county, voters that have received an early ballot and voters that have returned an early ballot,” Pouquette said.

This issue is hoped to be resolved by releasing the most up to date records.

By doing this, the Recorder’s Office will see an improvement in the over 1,200 hours of overtime and temporary staff that was needed to sift through duplicate registration forms.

In addition to the many duplicate registration forms, there were also many early ballots that needed to be processed.

In 2018, early ballot returns saw a sharp increase since 2012, which now represent almost 80% of ballots cast.

This year, over 60,000 early ballots were sent with over 34,000 returned.

A prominent reason for a smooth election day this past year was the new technological additions to voting machines.

Voters were able to check in quickly with the “Poll Pad”, cast their vote efficiently with the express vote machines and utilize the on-site vote tabulators.

In addition, early ballots were able to be counted in large quantities with the central count ballot tabulator.

“It was very evident the new equipment performed beyond expectations, it was very efficient and helped us process the votes on election day,” said Paul Melcher , interim elections director.

For the next election season, the Recorder’s Office hopes to improve the layout of the Martin Luther King vote center as well as the health department voting center.

“We had a higher than expected turnout at those vote centers and we want to make sure that we maximize the parking and space so we can process all those voters on election day,” Melcher said.

Statistically, the 2018 midterm election was successfully executed.

From 2014 to 2018, 79% more ballots were processed pre-election day.

Additionally, there was a 106% increase in Election Day voters.

“We see that the current political climate is such that there’s a lot more activism in voter interest in the elections,” Melcher said.

The Recorder’s Office hopes to improve their communication with voters next election season with the campaign: “Check it, it’s your vote”

The campaign intends to educate voters on how to register, how to vote by mail or in person, and where to get the information they need.

” There are all these tools out there so we want voters to make a plan, and know how they will cast their ballot and how to make that easy for them,” Pouquette said.