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November 8, 2017
Media Contact: Mircalla Wozniak, Communications Specialist, 303-413-7766
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 92,811 ballots for the 2017 Coordinated Election and has
posted preliminary unofficial results on our website - 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.
These are the additional
categories of ballots that 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. They are:
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819 Reserve
Ballots – These ballots are held to protect
voter anonymity for the below categories of ballots. We reserve 3 ballots per
precinct per district style.
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88 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 so they can
be processed with the reserve ballots.
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596 Manual Process Ballots* –
These are ballots that typically came in during the last 24-hours that 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.
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59 “VIPs” Ballots* – These are ballots from voters who reside in
precincts that have so few voters with the same ballot style. Processing them
together helps protect voter anonymity.
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39 Already Cured Ballots* – These are 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).
The total for these categories
is 1601 ballots.
Then, there are the following
categories of ballots that have the potential
to be counted at the end of the 8th day. They are:
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631 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 9 (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 15 at 4:30 p.m. to address these items
(8th day following the election).
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2718 UOCAVA military and overseas voter mail
ballots – Most military and overseas
voters that 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 Coordinated
Election.
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70 UOCAVA military and overseas electronic
ballots* – 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.
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25 Ballots that were picked up by Denver election
officials at the Central USPS mail processing facility at 7 p.m. on election
night* – 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. Assuming the signatures on these mail ballots are verified,
these ballots will be added to the preliminary results as well.
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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 3,475 ballots that may potentially 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 evening of Wednesday, November 15 along
with the 1,601 ballots that we know
will be counted, highlighted above.
While it is unlikely that any of the outcomes of
the current contests will change, the possibility with the outstanding ballots
exists, and here are the areas of the county that have somewhat closer contests
and a breakout of some of those sub-buckets (buckets we do not have sub-buckets of are
stared above):
City of Boulder:
- 264 Reserve Ballots (will be counted)
- 1419 potential UOCAVA mail ballots
- 226 potential “cure ballots”
City of Longmont:
- 165 Reserve Ballots (will be counted)
- 351 potential UOCAVA mail ballots
- 132 potential “cure ballots”
City of Lafayette:
- 51 Reserve Ballots (will be counted)
- 160 potential UOCAVA mail ballots
- 78 potential “cure ballots”
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:
Weds, Nov 15 – Evening – Between 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
1,601 + the “potential” categories listed above – up to
around 3,475
Tues, Nov 21 – End of Day**
(or sooner date/time if possible)
Certified Election Results posted
** This date is dependent on the statewide Risk Limiting
Audit. We will update the public on Monday, November 20, if this date is
shifting.
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