CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — Colorado voters will get their ballots this week, opening the window for voters to begin to cast their vote for the November election.
Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Sheri Davis sat down with Denver7's Douglas County reporter Tyler Melito to talk about how the county has been getting ready. This includes testing all systems in late September.
"We work really hard. As a matter of fact, we start about two years ahead of time planning for each election," Davis shared. "We do an internal test, we do an public test and then we do a post-election test. We use test ballots to run through the system and we hand tally them ahead of time, and then we compare that total vote count to what the machine counts to ensure that the system is counting accurately."
Davis says they do all these tests to let the community know that when they go to vote — however they chose to vote — their votes are safe and secure.
"We want to make sure that the public understands that the security and the transparency is here," Davis said. "We provide a multitude of ways for that to happen so they can trust this office because it's actually our election judges and our election workers that are from different political parties overseeing the process, working side by side to ensure that that integrity is in place."
With DougCo residents receiving their ballots this week, Davis says it not only gives voters the time to go through it and research what they are voting on but also to return their ballot earlier rather than later.
"When we have a long ballot like this, they can sit down at their coffee table or their dinner table, they can open up their laptop and they can research all the different issues that are on the ballot," Davis outlined. "The earlier that you can vote and drop them off, the better. If they're going to use the mail to return their ballot, please mail it early to give the post office plenty of time to get that processed into our office."
Related: Colorado voter guide to the 2026 midterm election: Everything you need to know
Using our Denver7 Your Voice DougCo Community News Facebook group, Melito asked for your questions of Davis.
Viewers Meg and Te Eiko asked about an idea thrown out regarding resetting voter roles and hand counting ballots.
"I don't think it's necessary," Davis told Melito. "We have so much information and we have processes in place that validate that. We are updating records on a daily basis and there are so, so many checks and balances built into the system that that really is not necessary."
Others wanted to know about the measures being taken to keep voters safe at the polls with threats of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement potentially positioning themselves at polling sites.
"This election is no different than any other election," Davis detailed. "We have partnerships with our local law enforcement and our sheriff's department, where we prepare in advance to make sure that we have the coverage we need, extra patrols and people's phone numbers at our fingertips."
Davis shared that Election Day is like Christmas morning for her and her team because of all they do to make elections happen.
She adds if people want to learn more, they can do so on their website.
