The Durango Herald will provide ongoing updates today about election activity in La Plata County. The Pine River Times will report this evening on election issues in Bayfield and Ignacio. Live results will be available around 7:30 p.m. For other election-related stories, go to www.durangoherald.com and click the 2018 Election tab. Ballots are due by 7 p.m. at Farmers Fresh Market in Ignacio, Bayfield Town Hall, the La Plata County Clerk's Ofice, and the La Plata County Fairgrounds.
Several voters dropping off ballots Tuesday at the La Plata County Administration Building, 1101 East Second Ave., said they were motivated by national issues.
Gustav Hallin said he opposes U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, who is seeking re-election, because Tipton is part of a dysfunctional Republican Party that serves the interests of corporations. He described President Donald Trump as a symptom of a troubled party.
"We need two healthy political parties," said Hallin, a registered Democrat, who considers himself an independent voter.
Hallin said he voted weeks ago and dropped off his daughter's ballot Friday after bringing it back from Scotland, where she is studying.
Benjamin Mandile, a junior at Fort Lewis College, said he didn't participate in the 2016 presidential election. He said was traveling in Nepal, Thailand and Vietnam and was shocked by the election of Trump.
"It made me realize you have got to vote every time," he said.
First-time voter Chris Mendoza said he opposes the city's Question 2A, which would increase sales and property taxes. The taxes would provide additional funding to the Durango Police Department, he said. He does not oppose law enforcement, but he is worried the additional funding will be used to help equip police with military gear.
"I would hate to see further militarization of our police forces," he said.
If approved Question 2A would allow the city of Durango to raise property taxes by 5.4 mills and to increase sales taxes by .55 percent to fund public safety, city infrastructure and other services funded by general city sales tax.
Mendoza also said he would like to see residents do more than cast ballots to address major issues facing the country, including police brutality, immigration and the disenfranchisement of Native Americans.
(AP) - The Colorado Secretary of State's Office says 45 percent of the state's nearly 4 million voters had already voted as of Monday night.
Ballots returned by party as of Tuesday in La Plata County:
ACN: 48
APV: 0
DEM: 8,240
GRN: 91
LBR: 216
REP: 6,969
UAF: 6,981
UNI: 4
Total: 23,549
That's 62 percent of the 37,933 ballots mailed in La Plata County.
As of Tuesday morning, 22,266 La Plata County residents or 48 percent of the 46,203 active and inactive registered voters, had turned in ballots, said Tiffany Parker, La Plata County clerk and recorder.
Democrats returned 8,140 ballots, Republicans returned 6,896 ballots and unaffiliated voters returned 6,880 ballots, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's office. Voters affiliated with minor parties returned 350 ballots.
Parker said she expects this year's voter turnout will be similar to the 2014 midterm election when 54 percent of the registered voters participated.
The La Plata County Clerk and Recorder's Office was seeing steady traffic Tuesday morning as voters turned in ballots, she said.
"It's steady, it's not crazy," she said.
An internet outage prevented the La Plata County Clerk and Recorder's Office from issuing regular ballots for 20 to 25 minutes Tuesday at three locations across the county, including Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio.
The outage lasted from about 10:30 to 10:50 a.m., and it was a system-wide outage that affected government offices across the county, said Clerk and Recorder Tiffany Parker.
"We are issuing provisional ballots at all three sites," said Clerk and Recorder Tiffany Parker during the outage. "We won't turn them away. ... They're still welcome to vote. I don't want anybody to think they can't."
The Clerk and Recorder's Office issued only six provisional ballots during the outage at the Durango office, she said. Most people wanted to wait until internet services returned.
