The Durango Herald will provide ongoing updates today about election activity in La Plata County. Live results will be available around 7:30 p.m. For other election-related stories, go to the homepage and click the 2018 Election tab.
The first wave of election results are in for La Plata County. Early results show favorable numbers for the re-election of Sheriff Sean Smith and county commissioner Brad Blake. The treasurer’s race between incumbent Allison Aichele and challenger Colton Black is almost a dead heat, with only 24 votes separating them. This first wave of results contains the majority of votes that will be counted tonight in La Plata County, but two more waives of results are expected to roll in at 9:30 and 11 p.m. View all the early results here.
(AP) – Polls have closed in Colorado.
Voters had until 7 p.m. to deliver their ballots to county voter centers.
For anyone still in line, their votes will be counted.
Denver City Councilman Albus Brooks reports long lines with wait times of over 90 minutes at the city’s Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office says more than 2.13 million people had voted by 5 p.m.
That number surpasses the more than 2.05 million who voted in the last midterm election in 2014.
Nearly 2.9 million Coloradans cast ballots in 2016, a presidential year.
(AP) – More than 2.13 million Coloradans have voted in Tuesday’s election, surpassing state turnout in the last midterm election in 2014.
The Secretary of State’s Office says Democrats held a very slight advantage over Republicans as of 5 p.m.
More than 709,000 Democrats and 700,000 Republicans had voted.
So, too, did more than 693,000 unaffiliated voters.
More than 2.05 million Coloradans voted in the 2014 midterms.
Nearly 2.9 million cast ballots in 2016, a presidential year.
Last-minute voters formed lines after 5 p.m. Tuesday at voting locations in Durango, including the La Plata County Clerk and Recorder’s Office in Bodo Industrial Park and the La Plata County Fairgrounds.
If you voted today, you probably got one. They’re ubiquitous on social media. It’s a declaration and a reminder: I Voted.
These little stickers have become an iconic part of voting, especially in a world so pervaded by social media. If you didn’t post a picture of yourself wearing a sticker, did you really vote, some joked.
But it hasn’t always been this way. The ‘I Voted” sticker came into prominence in the 1980, although where they began is not clear. The Phoenix Association of Realtors claims it started the craze in 1985. But Miami businesses have offered discounts to people with “I Voted” stickers since 1982.
By the late 1980s, those stickers were all over the country. They cost less than one cent per sticker. Intab, a North Carolina based company that makes the stickers, sells 1,000 stickers for $6.95, producing more than 30 million of the adhesive declarations each year, according to The Mercury News out of San Jose, California.
In 2015, the state of Illinois made it mandatory that if stickers are offered at all, they must be provided to everyone.
And if you didn’t get one and want to commemorate this day, you can print them at home here.
We spoke with La Plata County Clerk and Recorder Tiffany Parker this afternoon about when to expect election results, what turnout has been like and the internet outage that occurred earlier today.
The Clerk and Recorder’s Office experienced several short internet outages Tuesday that affected voter service centers in Durango, Bayfield and Ignacio, La Plata County Clerk and Recorder Tiffany Parker said. The first happened about 10:30 a.m. and lasted about 20 minutes. It was followed by about four additional shorter outages.
Voters were either issued provisional ballots or had the option to wait for internet service to be restored, she said.
“That’s the beauty of provisional ballots, nobody will be turned away,” she said
Many residents chose to wait and cheered when internet service was restored at the Durango office, she said.
Guinn Unger, Democrat challenger to state Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, in state Senate District 6 spent the day phone banking and working to get any remaining Democrats who had not voted to the polls. Coram said he spent the day working to winterize his farm.
Unger plans to spend the night at the La Plata County Democrats victory party at the Strater Hotel. Coram planned to spend the night at the Montrose Republican Party headquarters at a celebration there.
Republicans were putting out last-minute calls and picking up ballots to be dropped off Tuesday at polling centers, said Travis Oliger, chair of the La Plata County Republican Central Committee.
The La Plata County Republicans have focused their campaign efforts on La Plata County races for treasurer, a commissioner’s seat and the sheriff’s office.
Oliger said he expects unaffiliated voters will play a key role in the races locally and statewide.
“We are honestly really hoping that the independents are seeing what we see in our candidates,” he said.
More than 2 million Coloradans have cast ballots so far in Tuesday’s election.
That’s the latest turnout report from the Secretary of State’s Office.
Registered Democrats led Republicans and independents in returned ballots with just hours to go before polls close at 7 p.m.
More than 689,000 Democrats have voted, compared to nearly 680,000 Republicans and nearly 666,000 unaffiliated voters.
Nearly 1.1 million women have voted, compared to nearly 982,000 men.
The battle for state Senate District 6 pits incumbent Sen. Don Coram, a Montrose Republican who has been involved in mining and agriculture versus opponent, Guinn Unger, a Bayfield Democrat who is on the La Plata Electric Association board of directors and is a retired engineer.
If elected to Senate District 6, which covers Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma, Ouray, San Juan and San Miguel counties, Unger’s top-five priorities in the Colorado General Assembly would be:
Working for passage of a bill that would lower health insurance premium differentials between the Western Slope and the Front Range.Finding a way to increase funding for teacher pay.Building incentives in law to move to renewable energy.Raising the state minimum wage to around $15 an hour.Funding programs to help victims of sexual assault.
For Coram, his top priority would be to find funding for ideas identified in the Colorado Water Plan, which stems from his predecessor, Ellen Roberts, who championed an effort to examine water policy in nine river sub-basins in Colorado by bringing stakeholders together to identify best practices to guide policy.
In addition, Coram’ priorities would include:
Pushing for measures that increase school security.Pushing for measures that improve security on the electrical power grid to harden it against terrorist attacks.Pushing for measures that improve mental health and suicide-prevention efforts in Colorado.Pushing for measures that help Coloradans caught in the opioid crisis.The state Senate is currently controlled by the Republicans 18-16 with one independent who largely supports the Democrats.
2:40 p.m.
(AP) – Denver police are investigating after someone left burning campaign literature on the doorstep of a leading proponent of a ballot measure to remove a reference to slavery in the Colorado Constitution.
Jumoke (Jah-moh-KEE’) Emery says his wife smelled smoke and found a pile of pro-Amendment A door hanger literature smoldering on their front porch Monday.
Police said Tuesday that detectives who specialize in bias-related crimes are investigating.
Mirroring the language of the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Colorado’s Constitution currently allows slavery or involuntary servitude as a punishment for a crime.
Amendment A would get rid of that exception. It’s an archaic reference to slavery contained in a constitution that was adopted before Colorado became a state in 1876.
Emery, who is black, says it’s as if someone burned a cross on his front lawn.
Democratic volunteers placed last-minute calls to party members and unaffiliated voters Tuesday who had yet to turn in a ballot, said La Plata County Democrats Chairwoman Jean Walter. Democratic volunteers also made themselves available to drop of ballots for residents who could not make it to a polling center, she said.
“We’ve really gone all out,” she said of campaign efforts.
Party members also canvassed neighborhoods Tuesday morning in an attempt to reach residents before they left for work and remind them to vote, she said.
Walter said she expects voter turnout to exceed previous midterm years, but she doesn’t expect voter participation will compete with the 2016 election presidential election.
Residents who mailed or dropped off a ballot prior to Tuesday can use the Colorado Secretary of State’s website to check if their ballot was received. The site will ask for voter’s name, zip code and birthday to access voting record.
La Plata County Republican and Democratic parties have both encouraged voters on Facebook to check the site to see if their ballots were received. Those with concerns about their ballot can visit a polling center in La Plata County.
In an era of hyper bipartisanship, old-fashioned comity and working across the aisle took center stage in the campaign for House District 59, where incumbent state Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, faced off against independent Paul Jones, a retired aquatic biologists for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, who lives in Gunnison.
An unusual dynamic for the campaign was the failure of the Republicans to nominate a challenger to McLachlan. Currently, Democrats control the state House with 36 representatives to the Republicans 29.
McLachlan, who retired from Durango School District 9-R, touts her strong bipartisan relationship with state Sen. Don Coram, R-Montrose, and state Rep. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose, in representing Southwest Colorado and fighting proposals that would hurt the largely rural 59th House District.
She credits her 20 years as a teacher with making her a better state legislator
“If you’re not a good listener, you’re not going to be a very good teacher,” the Durango Democrat said.
But for her opponent, Paul Jones of Gunnison, bipartisan goodwill was not good enough. He chose to run as an independent looking for a new political era in which politicians move beyond party labels.
Jones maintains independents have a broader ability to reach consensus and broker deals among conflicted stakeholders.
“Right now, politics is divided into teams, and when you’re a team player, it means you’re focused on the team’s ideals, whether Democrat or Republican. But we need to be willing to be able to sit down with anyone to craft solutions,” he said. “When you’re on a team, you’ve got a coach, and when you don’t do what the coach says, you get benched.”
The district covers La Plata, Archuleta, San Juan, Ouray and Gunnison counties.
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.
Chris Mendoza, a first-time voter, turns in his ballot at the La Plata County Administration Building. He felt obligated to vote but would like to see citizens take more action to make change than just voting. #Election2018 pic.twitter.com/PoEc1KomNX
— Mary Shinn (@maryshinn) November 6, 2018
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 as of Nov. 6, 2018, 12:37 PM --https://t.co/GJ79Tamcic#COleg #COpolitics #COvotes pic.twitter.com/Q8cUHTc9Ih
— CO Sec. of State (@COSecofState) November 6, 2018
For the record, CO has surpassed total turnout from the 2014 election, which was 2,051,591. #COpolitics https://t.co/ZybhymzHJL
— Lynn Bartels (@lynn_bartels) November 6, 2018
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.
