Election workers make sure ballot boxes are secure

ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — Ballot drop boxes are monitored 24 hours a day. They are always under video surveillance, and there are even more eyes on the drop boxes when they are opened.

In Adams County, election workers like Republican Stan Jensen, Democrat Geri Romero and Republican Mark Dove empty ballot boxes and take the ballots to the election office for processing.

“I’m in the Republican party. I’m wearing a red lanyard,” Jensen said.

“I am a Democrat and, like everything else, it’s bipartisan,” Romero said.

“I’m wearing a red lanyard and around here that means Republican,” Dove said.

All three emptied the ballot drop box outside the Adams County Government Center on Friday afternoon, each with a unique job.

“We take turns pulling the ballots out of the boxes,” Jensen said. “We take turns doing the paperwork on the clipboard, and we take turns putting the seals on each bag and recording the numbers.

First, the taped seal on the back of the ballot box is checked to make sure it is not torn. Then, it is removed, and the box is unlocked. The ballots are piled into a heavy bag that is zipped and sealed with a serial-numbered bag lock.

“When we get ready to secure the bag, we use this log and a seal to secure the bag,” Romero said, showing off the log that is signed off by two election workers of opposing parties.

“We are totally bipartisan in the building on everything we do,” Jensen said. “Every time a ballot is moved, or a card is moved.”

“I’ve never been worried about the integrity simply because of the people that I’m working with,” Dove said. “Once the ballots are here, they get locked. That lock is not taken off until it’s returned to this building. That’s when we open the bags, and the logs are filled out to make sure that the locks that are on the bags are the same ones that we put on out at the ballot box.”

This process happens the same way in every county.

Ballot boxes are monitored by surveillance. They are opened by bipartisan teams of election workers, which can include any combination of Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters. The bipartisan workers log the movement of the ballots in the secure bag through the time they are opened in the elections office.

“I’m retired, most of us are retired. We enjoy doing this because it’s patriotic. We enjoy doing it because we need socialization with people. We need productivity in our lives,” Jensen said. “I can tell you it is secure beyond my wildest imaginations.”