This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
The Boulder County Elections Division has finished tallying results for 171,826 ballots for the 2018 General Election and has posted preliminary unofficial results on our website at www.BoulderCountyVotes.org.
As a normal part of the election process, there are remaining categories of ballots left to be counted at the end of the 8th day after the election. We know for certain that there is a group of ballots that will get counted and a secondary group of ballots of which only some will get counted. These categories are outlined below.
There are additional categories of ballots we know will count. These ballots have been signature verified and the voter has been given vote credit, but their ballot has not yet been counted, nor have the votes been added to our election results. This will happen at the end of the 8-day period. These are:
- 876 Reserve Ballots – These ballots are held to protect voter anonymity for the below categories of ballots. We reserve three ballots per precinct per district style.
- 13 Additional Reserve “Stray” Ballots – If there are ballots in a particular precinct/district style that have no other ballots to be processed with by the end of the election, we hold these ballots for anonymity purposes and they are processed with the reserve ballots.
- 4,086 Manual Process Ballots – These are ballots that typically came in during the last 24-hours and likely had one of the following issues: replacement ballot envelope (can’t go through our sorting machine); dirty/food stained or badly folded ballot (needs duplication to run through the scanners); or poorly marked ballots that need election judges to review voter intent.
- 282 “VIPs” Ballots – These are ballots from voters who reside in precincts that have few voters with the same ballot style. Processing these ballots together helps protect voter anonymity.
- 114 Already Cured Ballots – These are ballots that had a missing signature, signature discrepancy issue, etc. that was resolved too late for us to process these ballots on election night (typically these are cured on Election Day).
- 765 UOCAVA military and overseas electronic ballots – These are ballots from military/overseas voters that were transmitted on Election Day. While they have been signature verified, they have not yet been processed.
The total for these categories is 6,136 ballots.
Then, there are categories of ballots that have the potential to be counted at the end of the 8th day. They are:
- 1,480 Mail ballots that have the potential to be "cured" by voters – These are ballots where one or more of the following verification steps were incomplete: the signature on the envelope did not match, the signature on the envelope was forgotten, or an ID was required and not provided. These voters will be mailed a letter no later than Thursday, November 8 (and sent an email if an email address is on their voter registration record) informing them of the status of their ballot. Additionally, they should have already received a message if they are signed up for our Ballot Track system. By law, these voters have until Wednesday, November 14 to address these items (8th day following the election).
- 1,177 UOCAVA military and overseas voter mail ballots – Most military and overseas voters who intend to vote return their ballot by Election Day. However, by law, UOCAVA mail ballots have until 8 days after the election to be received. Historically, we have received less than 10% back from this category for a General Election.
- 43 UOCAVA military and overseas electronic ballots needing signature verification – These are ballots from military/overseas voters that were transmitted on Election Day. Assuming the signatures on these ballots are verified, these ballots will be added to the preliminary results as well.
- 51 UOCAVA military and overseas electronic ballots needing paperwork – These are ballots from military/overseas voters that were transmitted on Election Day, however, they are missing part of their identifying, required paperwork. They have until the end of the 8th day to submit the complete paperwork in order for us to count their ballot.
- 140 Ballots that were either picked up by Denver election officials at the Central USPS mail processing facility at 7 p.m. on election night or ballots received in the local Denver metro area by other county clerks and exchanged at a meeting of counties election officials Wednesday morning. Plus an unknown quantity of ballots that may have been returned by the election deadline to another county clerk’s office and will be transferred to our office within a few days – typically less than 25 ballots at this point. Assuming the signatures on these mail ballots are verified, these ballots will be added to the preliminary results as well.
- 184 In-person registrants with mail ballots and research-needed ballots – In most circumstances, these are mail ballots returned by voters who registered and left a Voter Service Center with a mail ballot then returned it by Election Day (we need to upload their registration form still and signature verify) or they are mail ballots from voters who requested a replacement ballot, but then voted the original ballot mailed to them.
- 14 Provisional Ballots* – Ballots that were voted at a Voter Service Center when a voter was in the wrong county, could not provide identification, etc.
Thus, from the above categories, there are upwards of an additional 3,089 ballots that may be added to the preliminary election results at the end of the 8-day statutory window. Those results will be added to the unofficial results the on Thursday, November 15 along with the 6,136 ballots that we know will be counted, highlighted above.
Note that ballot processing during the end stages of an election is a very manual process and ballots can move from one status category to another. Many of these figures come from hand counts and are subject to change.
If a voter would like to check to confirm that we received and processed their mail ballot, they can check online at www.BoulderCountyVotes.org. While checking on the status of their mail ballot, the Elections Division encourages all voters to login and sign-up for Boulder County Votes Ballot Track (available on the Elections website). Once signed-up, voters will receive alerts on their mail ballot during future elections.
Tentative summary schedule for remaining results postings:
** This date is dependent on the statewide Risk Limiting Audit. We will update the public on Monday, November 19.
Downtown Longmont Smoking Survey
We value your feedback to help gauge how visitors to Downtown Longmont feel about cigarette litter, smoking, and public health surrounding this topic. As a thank you for your participation, we will be giving away three $25 Downtown Gift Cards valid at over 60 Downtown businesses. If you would like to be entered to win, please submit your e-mail at the end of the survey. (Written by Longmont Downtown Development Authority)
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