Colorado election officials have agreed on procedures to ensure that only eligible voters’ choices are counted on a proposed passenger-rail tax, after roughly 800,000 ballots in four counties mistakenly included the question. State election officials met Friday with clerks from Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Weld counties to establish testing protocols for Issue 7A, according to election officials. The plan may require hand-counting ballots in a small number of precincts. Ballot processing is scheduled to begin Oct. 19. Officials have urged voters to complete and return the ballots they received. County election offices will determine which votes on the measure came from people within the Front Range Passenger Rail District’s boundaries, they said. “The most important thing our voters need to know is that their votes will be counted accurately, securely, and transparently and results will be reported in a timely fashion,” Arapahoe County Clerk Joan Lopez said in a statement. Clerks from Adams, Douglas and Weld counties likewise said their priority was secure, transparent and accurate voting. Issue 7A asks voters in the district to approve a 0.333% sales and use tax, projected to raise $295 million annually, and authorize the district to take on $580 million in debt to build passenger rail connecting Front Range communities. The district spans parts of a proposed 13-county rail corridor, but the measure should appear only on ballots sent to voters within its boundaries. State lawmakers narrowed those boundaries this year, focusing them on municipalities near planned stations. The Front Range Passenger Rail District acknowledged it did not properly communicate the revised voting map to county officials, leading to the ballot error. The district’s general manager, Sal Pace, has said the boundaries reflect Federal Railroad Administration requirements concerning the distance between stations and train speed. Critics have argued that excluding some communities along the corridor, including areas between Littleton and Colorado Springs, could benefit the tax measure politically. The vote will determine whether the district can establish the tax and borrow for the project. Election officials’ procedures are intended to separate valid votes on the question from ballots mistakenly sent to people outside the district.