Arapahoe County

Thousands of purged Colorado voters have no clue that they’ve been removed from the state’s rolls. And that could make for some dramatic scenarios on Election Day tomorrow when would-be registered voters are denied a regular ballot at the polls.

Tie together one of Colorado’s most populated counties with registration numbers that split almost evenly among Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated voters and you can bet Arapahoe County is on everyone’s political map this year. In fact, there isn’t a politico in Colorado that doesn’t consider Arapahoe one of the state’s most clear-cut swing counties in an important swing state.

The clock is ticking down until Colorado’s big day. And with the John McCain campaign all but pulling out of the state as Barack Obama pushes forward, the result of the November election in Colorado may be coming into focus.

Unfortunately, when it comes to election administration in Colorado, things are getting muddier and muddier by the day. In our election bungle roundup last week, we guided you through the week’s most important news: national groups slamming Secretary of State Mike Coffman on his voter registration policy, Attorney General John Suthers backing Coffman in his recent voter purge, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink further disenfranchising student voters, and more. Read on to for the latest foul-ups:

Hundreds of thousands of Colorado voters are sending their mail-in ballots back to county clerks this week, and among them are several dozen jail inmates who successfully registered to vote this year.

The Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition recently launched a vigorous vote-from-jail campaign. And while some counties have been more receptive than others, in Denver alone the number of voting inmates quadrupled from 20 people in 2004 to 80 this year.

Were not in Boulder anymore, Barney.

Controversial 18th Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers, a Republican, is known for her penchant for a hard line approach to crime, her poor relationship with the judges in her district, and a public censure for unethical conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice in connection with her communications with a collections attorney.

Now, she is under [...]