Next unofficial results update will be after 8-day cure and military ballots due date

Boulder County, Colo. – The Boulder County Elections Division has finished tallying results for 127,164 ballots for the 2020 Presidential Primary Election and has posted preliminary unofficial results online - www.BoulderCountyVotes.org.

As a normal part of the election process, there are remaining categories of ballots left to be counted on the 9^th day after the election. 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.

Here are the 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 sometime on Thursday, March 12. These are:

• 2,993 Reserve Ballots – These ballots are held to protect voter anonymity for the below categories of ballots. We reserve multiple ballots per precinct per district style.
• 869 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.
• 3,395 Mail Ballots – These are ballots from voters whose signature has been approved, but whose votes have not yet been counted.
• 39 “VIPs” (Voter Information Protection) 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.
• 1 Already Cured Ballots or Military/Overseas ballots arrived and verified – These are either ballots that had a missing signature, signature discrepancy issue, etc. that was resolved, but too late for us to process these ballots on election night (typically cured on Election Day) or military/overseas ballots that came through the secure Secretary of State portal (military/overseas transmission system) or email affidavit, have been signature verified, but have not yet been counted.

The total for these categories is 7,297 ballots.

Then, there are the following categories of ballots that have the potential to be counted at the end of the 8^th day. They are:

• 1,276 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 were mailed a letter no later than Thursday, March 5 (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, March 11 to address these items (8th day following the election).
• 476 UOCAVA military and overseas voter mail ballots – (outstanding number of ballots that could be returned via mail) – 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 5% back from this category for a Primary Election.
• 53 Ballots that were picked up by Denver election officials at the Central USPS mail processing facility at 7 p.m. on election night OR ballots received by other local county clerks and exchanged in person between our offices on Wednesday at the “Front Range Great Ballot Exchange” – Plus an unknown quantity of ballots that may have been returned by the election deadline to a western slope county clerk’s office and will be transferred to our office within a few days – typically less than 25 ballots. Assuming the signatures on these mail ballots are verified, these ballots will be added to the preliminary results as well.
• 6 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 1,836 ballots that may be added to the preliminary election results at the end of the 8-day statutory window. We anticipate adding those results to the unofficial totals late in the day on Thursday, March 12 along with 7,297 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 under Ballot Track. While checking on the status of their mail ballot, the Elections Division encourages all voters to include a notification method for the system for future elections.

Tentative summary schedule for remaining results postings:

Thursday, March 12 – 7,297 ballots + the “potential” categories listed above (up to another 1,836 ballots) DATE* – Certified Election Results posted/refreshed as certified

* This date is dependent on approval from the state, once the statewide Risk Limiting Audit is complete.