Craig Daily Press

Craig — The statewide mock election taught some lessons, but overall went by pretty smoothly, said Lila Herod, Moffat County chief deputy clerk and recorder.

Starting April 21, all Clerk and Recorder’s Offices statewide took part in simulated exercises to test the durability and workability of the new Colorado voter registration database.

This is the database’s first year, Herod said.

Some questioned if booting up a new database system in a presidential election year is a good idea.

The past two weeks of mock election training was an effort to answer those questions, Herod said.

There were questions about whether the database could handle the server load from every county accessing the system at the time; and questions about whether clerk and recorders could adapt to a new system in less than a year before a large-scale election.

Herod believes the training was well-taken by Colorado’s county officials, and she feels more secure about the database now than before.

“I think it will be fine,” Herod said. “It’s a very sophisticated system. I think the main issue will be training. It’s powerful and has a lot of capabilities that smaller counties might not use its full potential.

“I think this has been good to identify some of those issues.”

Herod plans to sort through the database’s tools on her own time from now until election season, she said.

However, questions still loom over one of the biggest elections in Colorado’s history, Herod said.

“There are a lot more variables to this election than in others,” Herod said. “We have a new statewide system that I don’t feel adequately trained on, yet. Other problems like we’re still trying to work out conditions” to recertify electronic voting machines.

“Then this is the biggest election year ever,” she said with a laugh.

State and local primary elections are Aug. 12. The 2008 national election is Nov. 4.

Collin Smith can be reached at 875-1794 or cesmith@craigdailypress.com