Mesa County won’t use the state’s new voter-registration database in the November election because of problems uncovered in election trials.

The State of Colorado Registration and Election System could fail under the pressure of Election Day and possibly during early voting, Mesa County Elections Director Sheila Reiner said.

“We don’t believe it’s quite ready,” she said.

The new system offers a serious benefit during off-election months, allowing clerks across the state to make real-time changes to registrations, Reiner said.

With that feature, voters changing registration from one county to another can have the changes reflected immediately instead of having to wait for a period of days, she said.

Elections officials, however, got a vivid demonstration of what could go wrong in 2006, when Denver voters had to wait hours in line to cast ballots because of a system failure.

To avoid that, Mesa, Larimer and Weld counties will use their own registration systems for this year’s election.

Mesa County will make its own electronic poll book for use during early voting and on Election Day, Reiner said.

Ideally, the state system would allow elections officials to check at the polls on the status of voters.

Voters whose status can’t be verified from the Mesa County poll book will be allowed to fill in provisional ballots that can be counted if it’s determined later they are eligible to vote in the county, Reiner said.

The creation of the county’s electronic poll book won’t cost any more than already is budgeted for the election, she said.

The statewide system was required under federal voting reforms passed after the 2000 election problems in Florida.

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E-mail Gary Harmon at gharmon@gjds.com.