A group in Pueblo County says not every vote is being counted

Election Day is around the corner and people in Pueblo County feel votes are not being counted.

People in Pueblo held a protest against Clerk and Recorder Gilbert Ortiz, because they say he isn’t running a fair election. They allege the machine Ortiz is using to count the votes isn’t counting every ballot.

“We want to know what the count is. Win, lose or draw want a fair count,” protester Dorothy Butcher said.

She and the rest of the group have a solution to the problem.

“We want every vote to count. If they can’t fix the equipment let’s have a hand count,” Butcher said.

Ortiz said 7.2 percent of ballots have been rejected because of voter error.

“People try to erase ballots because they make a mistake on them, they try to cross things out, they have other marks or they accidentally have the dog grab it,” he said.

But even though there are errors, Ortiz said it doesn’t mean the vote isn’t being counted.

“(The ballots) go up to a board of Democrats, and Republicans and are copied onto a new ballot that is kept together the whole entire time, even after the election, and the one ballot that has been duplicated is the one that runs through the machine,” he said.

As of Wednesday night, 35 percent of Pueblo County residents have voted.