Unofficial La Plata County vote totals Tuesday night showed wins for Bayfield's school bond issue and two Democratic incumbent county commissioners.
Despite outstanding ballots, County Clerk Tiffany Parker said she doesn't anticipate those results will change.
Parker reported 302 ballots that have missing or problematic signatures on the outside of the ballot's return envelope. Those voters are notified and have until Nov. 16 to come in and reconcile the problem. In addition, there are about 374 military and overseas ballots that must be returned to the clerk's office by Nov. 16.
And Parker reported eight provisional ballots where registration is in question. The law sets a Nov. 22 deadline to resolve those. That's also the day the votes will be canvassed and results certified, Parker said.
As of Tuesday night, the Bayfield school bond issue had 2,661 yes votes and 2,498 no votes. There were 248 district voters who didn't vote on the bond issue. It authorizes $28.7 million in property taxes to pay for bonds to build a new school for grades K-3 and do major renovations and additions at the elementary school for grades K-2. A state BEST grant will pay $8.5 million of the total project cost of $37.2 million.
County Commissioner Julie Westendorff garnered 15,668 votes versus 13,516 for young challenger Kayla Patterson.
Commissioner Gwen Lachelt held a narrower lead with 15,111 votes versus 14,531 for challenger Lyle McKnight.
Both of those margins were too high to trigger a recount. Both Lachelt and Westendorff also finished the 2012 election with narrow margins, and the final results weren't known until the final certification because that year there were more than 700 provisional ballots.
The Durango School District property tax increase for operations was approved handily, with 14,108 yes votes and 8,420 no.
County voters rejected a 2.4 mill property tax increase for county road maintenance with 14,055 yes votes and 15,401 no votes. This is the second voter rejection on this. There were 2,100 voters who didn't vote on the issue.
County voters soundly defeated a separate property tax increase to help pay for a new passenger terminal and other improvements at the Durango-La Plata County Airport to handle growing passenger loads and larger jets. That vote was 11,388 yes and 18,337 no votes.
La Plata County went blue in the State Representative 59th District race and the Congressional 3rd District race.
Democrat Barbara McLachlan had 16,189 county votes versus 13,885 for incumbent State Rep. J. Paul Brown. McLachlan also won district wide with 22,970 votes versus 22,353 for Brown. In 2014, Brown won the district by an extremely narrow margin against McLachlan's husband Michael, after he took it from Brown by a narrow margin in 2012.
In the congressional race, county voters supported Democratic challenger Gail Schwartz with 15,347 votes over incumbent Scott Tipton, who had 13,631 votes. But Tipton held onto his seat district-wide with 184,957 votes, versus 137,285 for Schwartz.
La Plata County continued its trend of going blue in the presidential race, with 15,300 votes for Hillary Clinton and 12,471 for Donald Trump. Libertarian Gary Johnson got 1,834 votes. Jill Stein with the Green Party came in next with 637 votes. There were 346 voters who didn't vote for any presidential candidate. Statewide voters supported Clinton with 47 percent of the vote to 44.78 percent for Trump, 4.97 percent for Johnson, and 1.24 percent for Stein.
In the U.S. Senate race, county voters supported incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet with 15,692 votes versus 12,548 for Republican challenger Darryl Glenn. Bennet also won statewide 48.92 percent to 45.96 percent.
On the state ballot issues, Amendment 69 to create a single payer health care system in Colorado went down in flames locally and state-wide. The county vote was 7,669 votes for and 21,745 against. Statewide it was 20.34 percent for and 79.66 percent against.
By similar resounding margins, county and state voters approved Proposition 106 to allow doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients who request it. The county gave 21,836 votes for and 7,626 votes against. Statewide it was 64.54 percent for and 35.46 percent against.
County and state voters supported Amendment 70 to raise the minimum wage in Colorado and Amendment 71 to make it harder to amend the state constitution. The county votes for Am. 70 were 18,593 yes to 11,510 no. Statewide it won 54.33 percent to 45.67 percent.
On Am. 71 the county voted 16,258 yes to 12,347 no. Statewide it was 56.73 percent yes to 43.27 percent no.
County voters supported Amendment 72 to substantially raise taxes on tobacco products. State voters didn't. The county voted 17,806 yes to 12,311 no. Statewide it was 46.34 percent yes to 53.66 percent no.
On other state issues, county voters supported Amendment T to remove a provision from the state constitution that allows involuntary servitude in certain circumstances. The county voted 15,394 yes to 12,490 no. But that lost narrowly statewide, 49.14 percent yes to 50.86 percent no.
County and state voters rejected Amendment U to eliminate property taxes on certain private business uses on public land. The county vote was 12,289 yes to 14,460 no. The state vote was 43.27 percent yes to 56.73 percent no.
County and state voters supported Proposition 107 to create a state presidential primary, with unaffiliated voters allowed to participate without affiliating with a party; and Prop. 108 to let unaffiliated voters participate in other primary elections.
The county voted 19,863 yes to 8,816 no on 107. The state vote was 63.72 percent yes to 36.28 percent no.
The county voted 15,248 yes to 12,798 no on 108. The state vote was 52.50 percent yes to 47.50 percent no.
The county clerk's office was packed at 6:30 Tuesday evening, but the crowd thinned out soon after that. They could vote by paper ballot or touch screen. A couple people were still finishing their touch screen votes after 7 p.m. According to clerk's office technician Mona Kurlander, many new voters registered on election day, and many of them were men.
Parker said 270 people registered Tuesday, 147 men and 123 women. Of the men, 28 registered as Democrats, 35 as Republicans, 72 unaffiliated, and the rest with a minor party. Of the women, 42 registered as Democrats, 18 as Republicans, 56 unaffiliated, and the rest minor parties.
A total 31,561 ballots were cast, almost 84 percent of the county's 37,592 active voters, according to Parker; and 70.47 percent of a combined 44,787 active and inactive voters. Parker said 25,591 ballots were cast before election day.
"I was very pleased with the turnout," she said. "I'm very pleased and happy with the process." Asked about any glitches, she said there was a server issue in the Secretary of State's Office that had the county operations down for about 15 minutes.
The Bayfield Town Hall parking lot was full at mid-day Tuesday with people coming to drop off completed ballots or vote in person in the town board meeting room. Things seemed to be going smoothly. There was no line.
Bayfield Town Hall was much busier in late afternoon, and there was some waiting to vote, but still no problems. One woman who dropped her ballot off in the outside box commented that this was the toughest decision of her life.
This was Colorado's first all-mail presidential election.
