Gilda Yazzie is set to be sworn in as a Durango city councilor on April 18, but who will join her on council as a second-place finisher remains to be seen.
Voters have until the end of day Wednesday to “cure” their ballots, or resolve issues that would prevent a ballot from being counted such as signature discrepancies, unsigned ballot envelopes or lack of ID on file with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.
Erin Hutchins, La Plata County elections administrator, said 24 ballots can still be cured. That is down from 39 last week.
At the close of the April 4 election, candidate David Woodruff held a six-vote lead over his closest competitor, Harrison Wendt. That is within a 0.5% margin, which would trigger an automatic recount unless the cured ballots push one of the candidates over the 0.5% threshold.
Hutchins said she expects cured ballots, which will not be processed until after the Wednesday deadline, to be fairly evenly split between the two candidates, making a recount likely.
She said she isn’t able to say how many votes it would take to give either candidate a large enough lead to avoid a recount, and incoming overseas and military ballots can still be processed through Wednesday.
If a recount is necessary, it will begin on Thursday, said Tiffany Lee, county clerk, in an interview last week. The entire bipartisan election process, from signature verification by election judges to ballot tabulation will be performed again including any cured ballots.
Affidavits notifying voters about whether their ballots need to be cured were mailed on April 5, the day following the City Council election.
Voters can check to see if their ballots were counted at govotecolorado.com.
cburney@durangoherald.com
