Coloradans have been inundated with campaign emails, ads and mailers during the last few months, and now it’s time for the first round of elections for 2014.
“We mailed primary ballots yesterday,” Erin Hutchins, election administrator for the La Plata County Clerk and Recorder’s Office, said Tuesday. “So people should be getting them (today) or Thursday – it’s hard to say now that they go to Albuquerque first.”
The hot race on the state ballot is for the Republican nomination for governor. The nomination is being pursued by four candidates, former U.S. Reps. Bob Beauprez and Tom Tancredo, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler and former Colorado Senate Republican leader Mike Kopp. The winner in that race will go against incumbent Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper in November.
Primary ballots go out only to voters registered as affiliated with major political parties, which in Colorado is the Republican, Democratic and American Constitution parties.
Unaffiliated voters can vote in the primary election only if they change their affiliation to one of those parties, Hutchins said, but it’s easy to make the change by filling out a form and signing it. The affiliation change can be made up to and including the day of the primary election, June 24.
As of Tuesday, 10,419 ballots had been sent to Republicans, 10,212 to Democrats and 71 to American Constitution Party voters in La Plata County. The largest number of voters in La Plata County, 11,104, identify as unaffiliated.
“Those numbers will change every day between now and the election,” Hutchins said.
Ballots must be received by 7 p.m. June 24. Only one first-class, 49 cent stamp is required to return them by mail, but ballots also may be returned to the Clerk and Recorder’s Election Office, 98 Everett St., Suite C in Bodo Industrial Park and the Voter Service and Polling Centers at Bayfield Town Hall, 1199 Bayfield Parkway, from June 16 through Election Day, and the La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave. in Durango, at certain hours June 21, 23 and 24.
abutler@durangoherald.com
On the net
Visit www.laplatacountyclerk.org or www.govotecolorado.com for more information, frequently asked questions and forms to change party affiliations.
