Broomfield’s bill for legal battles over election adds up to $13,000 so far

Jan. 26--Broomfield has racked up at least $13,000 in costs related to lawsuits and other matters connected to the Nov. 5 election, which has been mired in controversy for months now.

From Dec. 4 through Dec. 31, Broomfield spent about $13,000 on election-related costs, said Bill Tuthill, city and county attorney. Those costs came from line items in both the attorney's office and Elections Division budgets.

When the lawsuits will be resolved is at best a guessing game right now. The multiple legal matters involve numerous players, including the Secretary of State's Office, the city and a pro-fracking and an election watchdog group.

The timelines for next steps aren't exactly clear. In one case, a trial date is expected to be set by month's end. Another is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling that could have relevance, and the others are awaiting further action by either judges or the parties involved.

There also is no clear picture of how much Broomfield's election-related costs will go up in the coming months, mostly because the cases are slowly winding their way through the court system.

In December, election-related costs were associated with paying four election judges and hiring attorneys to represent the canvass board. The election judges and two of the three canvass board members are residents, not city employees. The city also hired former Denver City Attorney David Fine as a consultant, because of his familiarity with elections law, Tuthill said.

Broomfield has not kept track of staff time spent on the lawsuits and election matters, but Tuthill said Broomfield isn't spending additional money to pay himself or other staff, such as City and County Clerk Jim Candelarie, for their work on the cases.

Pat Soderberg, Broomfield finance director, said election judges are paid from the Elections Division budget, while funding for outside counsel comes from the attorney's office budget.

Should Broomfield go over its budget for election-related costs, Soderberg said the city typically rolls over funds from the risk management division to make up the difference, she said.

There are four election-related lawsuits in which Broomfield is either a plaintiff or a defendant. Among them is a lawsuit filed by pro-fracking group Broomfield Balanced Energy Coalition, or BBEC, that officially challenges the results of the election, in which a five-year ban on fracking was approved by just 20 votes.

BBEC also has filed a lawsuit alleging the Broomfield elections division failed to provide access to election watchers throughout the ballot-counting process.

Tuthill said Broomfield has given election watchers fair access.

Another lawsuit involves voter advocacy group Citizen Center, which has asked that Broomfield be ordered to turn over ballots and ballot-related information from the election.

Broomfield election officials said they want permission from a judge before granting access to the documents, because the documents are connected to other election-related lawsuits.

Marilyn Marks, of Citizen Center, also is part of another lawsuit, which alleges Broomfield did not comply with several aspects of the Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, such as failing to provide an audit log of when votes were counted.

The HAVA complaint and the other lawsuits are still finding their way through the court system.

At hearing at the Secretary of State's Office on Thursday, both Broomfield and Citizen Center stated their positions on the HAVA complaint, but a date has not yet been set for when the Secretary of State's Office might move forward with the complaint, Marks said.

While the court cases run their course, City and County Manager Charles Ozaki said Broomfield is conducting a study to determine how to conduct a "smoother, mistake-free" election this year, he said.

Ozaki said Broomfield has done its best to count every valid vote and offer a transparent process, and will continue to look into better ways to conduct future elections.

The numerous complaints about the Broomfield election stem from the razor-thin passage of the fracking ban, which appeared on the ballot as Question 300. The ban was failing by 13 votes on election night, but passed by 20 votes after a mandatory recount.

Contact Enterprise Staff Writer Megan Quinn at 303-410-2649 or [email protected]

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