This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Written by Macie May: Left Hand Yoga and Family Village: A Longmont Cooperative were each awarded a $3,000 Advance Longmont Startup Grant by Longmont Economic Development Partnership (EDP).

According to a press release, "The Advance Longmont Startup Grant is designed to support Longmont’s startup businesses in their launch efforts."

Left Hand Yoga, located at 1811 Hover St, Suite H, in Longmont offering classes in Vinyasa Style yoga.

"The Startup Grant will allow us to install mirrors and deal with the floor in the kitchen/break room and help us to pay the rent and payroll," states James Allison when Longmont EDP asked how he would use the grant money.

According to the press release, "Family Village, located at 350 Terry St, Longmont 80501 in the CoSolve building, is a destination for mothers re-entering in the workforce to find a community. Incorporated with a daycare center for children, the ecosystem allows mothers to find suitable/flexible daycare for their children while looking to network and even pick up new skills to enter back into the workforce."

"This money is instrumental in supporting Family Village to get through this early phase of opening. Without taking out loans and without any investment income, Family Village is functioning solely on the income provided via our memberships and donations from the community. While it is a challenge to sustain ourselves this way, it enables us to function with the sole focus on our members’ needs and our role in fulfilling those needs. This money gives us some relief in being able to operate while we continue to increase our membership count. What an incredible gift,” states owner Melanie Piazza, in a prepared statement to Lonmont EDP.

More information about the Longmont Economic Development Partnership and all grant programs, including their respective applications can be found on the Longmont Economic Development Partnership website at www.longmont.org.

Final Official Results Available for 2018 Primary Election

Boulder County successfully completed Risk-Limiting Audit

The following is a press release from Boulder County Elections and is published by the Longmont Observer as a public service.

The final, official results from Boulder County’s 2018 Primary Election are available now at www.BoulderCountyVotes.org.

The final official results include the Statement of Votes, a document that shows precinct-by-precinct results for every candidate on Boulder County ballots this year. The Statement of Votes will be forwarded to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office as part of the election close out process.

On Monday and Tuesday, elections staff and the appointed Audit Board (a Democratic Party and Republican Party representative) successfully completed a Risk-Limiting Audit. This is a post-election test that provides citizens with evidence that election results tabulated by our voting system reflect the actual votes cast by voters. The process reviews how a ballot’s votes were captured at the time it was processed by our voting system by comparing the actual physical ballots with their digital tallies captured at the time of processing. To perform the audit, the Secretary of State’s office assigns a random sampling of the exact ballots you must review out of all the ballots cast in an election.

Colorado is the first state in the nation to implement a statewide risk-limiting audit. While Boulder County and all Colorado counties have conducted thorough post-election audits for well over a decade, a Risk-Limiting Audit is considered the “gold standard” test of election results. A final report on the audit was provided to the Boulder County Canvass Board for verification prior to election certification.

Elections staff also completed the reconciliation process. This process provides the evidence for the Canvass Board to certify that the number of votes counted is equal to or less than the number of ballots cast and that the number of ballots cast is equal to or less than the number of eligible voters. The Reconciliation Report has also been posted online.

This year’s Canvass Board consisted of Boulder County Chief Deputy Clerk Sydney Power and two party representatives from the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Celeste Landry and Mike Hart represented the Democratic Party. Cathy Jarrett and Richard Seale represented the Republican Party.

Thursday afternoon, the Chief Deputy Clerk, the Democratic Party members of the Boulder County Canvass Board and Republican Party member Richard Seale, certified the election results. The second Republican Party member of the Canvass Board, Cathy Jarrett, declined to sign the certification citing the format of reports received by the Secretary of State’s office. Republican member Seale expressed similar misgivings, but signed the certification.

The canvass documents, audit documentation, and the Statement of Votes are available at www.BoulderCountyVotes.org.