Q1. What is Election Night Reporting (ENR), and what does it do?

A1. ENR is the platform for displaying election results for the state of Colorado, its counties, and its local municipalities/districts. It’s simply a resource for the public to view statewide results in one location. When statewide contests are held, those elections and any shared between multiple counties will be visible on the state ENR page. If a contest is specific to one county, it will be located on that county’s ENR page. All data displayed for both the counties and the state is generated through data uploaded by the counties after their voting systems have tabulated results. Election results in ENR are unofficial, though results will be designated as official in the header and by status change after each county has canvassed their election. For true “official” results, certified results provided by the county are the best resource.

Q2. What ENR doesn’t do.

A2. ENR does not tabulate any data. It simply displays results using data uploaded from counties and is configured to reflect shared results as they are tabulated by counties. Election results in ENR are unofficial, though results will be designated as official in the header and by status change after each county has canvassed their election. For true “official” results, certified results provided by the county are the best resource.

Q3. Who provides and supports ENR for Colorado?

A3. The ENR website is provided by SOE Software, a company based in Tampa, Florida, who has been the provider for Colorado’s ENR since 2012. SOE does not tabulate votes or control election data.

Q4. Where do the responsibilities lie with ENR?

A4. CDOS staff configure county and state pages to organize and aggregate data uploaded by the counties. This configuration includes items such as updating the election date in the header, providing the expandable ballot text, setting contest order based on submitted ballots, mapping contests shared between counties, and designating party or question colors. CDOS also provides support to the counties, works directly with SOE to identify and correct issues, and updates the state election results, periodically, as counties upload their election results.

Counties may personalize their pages to display different widgets, specific messaging, and other information based on their discretion. Their data uploads are the basis of all results displayed on ENR, so counties are responsible for reviewing their county page and any reports for the accuracy of information, including vote totals, ballots cast totals, contest names and any ballot question text.

Q5. What is the process for reporting results in the ENR?

A5. When a county chooses to update results in ENR, they will use clean removeable media to download the results file from their voting system. They then use a secure computer outside of the voting system to access the ENR website, and upload their results. Counties may also report through the manual entry of election results. Typically, only San Juan County is designated as manual entry, as they hand count their ballots.

As election results are tabulated by the county, they will periodically upload to the ENR system throughout election night and as they continue processing ballots or cures in the days following the election. CDOS will periodically update the state election results as counties upload their results, with these statewide results being an aggregated product of the data uploaded by counties.

Q6. How are ENR reports created?

A6. ENR generates a summary report from the information that counties upload, if that report has been selected. CDOS has no role in the creation or verification of available reports in ENR.

Q7. How can I find a contest that I am interested in?

A7. Contests on the “main” or state page are those that have been certified by the state and are contests that are shared by multiple counties. The contests are grouped by categories listed above the header – “State Contests”, “State Questions”, “Municipal Contests”, etc. Clicking on a category narrows down the list of contests that you have to scroll through. If the contest you are looking for does not appear on the state page, it is most likely a single county contest, or is a contest confined to a single district within a single county, and would be found on that county’s page. State contests are grouped by categories for ease of searching, but you are also able to specifically search for a contest using the My Favorite Races tab to designate a specific contest name.

Q8. What does each status mean in ENR?

A8. The county map statuses indicate if a county is participating in an election and what the status of their election result tabulations are if they are participating. These statuses are updated by the county to show progress as they continue to tabulate and update results.

• “Not participating” – the county is not participating in the current election.
• “Results not yet reported” – the county has not yet reported any election results. After the county’s first upload on election night, the status will change to “Election night reporting in progress”.
• “Election night reporting in progress” – the county has reported some election results, but is still counting ballots and will provide additional results at least one more time on election night. After the county completes their last upload on election night, they check a box to set the status to “Election night reporting complete”.
• “Election night reporting complete” – the county has finished counting ballots for the night and provided the last results for election night. The county still has more ballots to count and will provide updated results in the coming days.
• “Post-election reporting in progress” – the county continues to upload election results in the days following the election. All counties in Colorado process additional ballots at least one time after election day, even if they’ve counted all of their timely received ballots, to account for ballot cures or late arriving Military and Overseas voters’ ballots. After the county uploads their final election results that are to be included in the risk-limiting audit, the county checks a box to set the status to “Post-election reporting complete”.
• “Post-election reporting complete” – the county has completed counting all ballots for the election. The results are not official until the county canvass board certifies them on or before the 22nd day after election day. After the canvass the county uploads again, changes the header to indicate that the election results are official, and checks a box to set the status to “County certified results.”
• “County certified results” – the county canvass board has certified official election results for the election. At this point, the election is locked so that the county can’t upload election results again.

Q9. When a contest is marked as “official” in ENR, what does that mean?

A9. This indicates that the election results that are being displayed have been signed off by the county’s Canvass Board.