What’s happening with the vote count in Lauren Boebert’s race
Election officials won’t finish counting ballots in the tight race between Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and her Democratic challenger, retired Navy Rear Admiral Eileen Laubacher, until the end of this week, meaning it may be a few more days before a winner in the 4th Congressional District is clear.
Laubacher was leading Boebert by about 3,400 votes on Monday evening. The Associated Press, which The Colorado Sun relies on to make race calls, had not yet called the race.
A few thousand 4th District voters whose ballots were rejected because of signature problems or other discrepancies have until 11:59 p.m. Thursday to fix those issues through a process known as curing.
On top of that, some counties have set aside ballots to be mixed in with those “cured” ballots and counted together, along with any remaining overseas and military ballots on Friday, the deadline for counting ballots in November’s election.
The lists of voters who need to cure their ballots are public, enabling the campaigns to reach out directly to people whose votes are at risk of not being counted. By mixing in some ballots that don’t need to be cured, it helps ensure the privacy of the relatively small number of people on the lists.
Some 4th District counties have finished counting ballots for now and don’t plan to post more results until Friday, after the deadline for voters to cure their ballots.
Nonetheless, Laubacher claimed victory Monday afternoon without citing why she thought the race was over. (Laubacher’s declaration came a few hours after CNN called the race in her favor, but Laubacher did not cite the CNN race call in her statement.)
“This victory is historic. But making history means nothing if we don’t make a difference. My focus is simple: lower costs, protect healthcare, strengthen rural communities, take on corruption in both parties, and hold Washington accountable,” she said in a statement.
Boebert had not conceded Monday night.
“Declaring victory now is like icing a cake before it comes out of the oven,” Boebert said in a video posted on social media.
Scott Gessler, the campaign’s lawyer, said Boebert’s campaign is not giving up and is working to cure as many ballots as possible.
“We’re trying like heck,” he said Monday.
Arapahoe County, which includes a portion of the 4th Congressional District, is still counting and could post more results late Monday. There are still about 400 ballots from the district that need to be counted, county spokesperson Jill McGranahan said. The county will also hold back another 100 ballots to be counted Friday for anonymity reasons.
Going into the weekend there were over 3,000 ballots across the 4th District that needed to be cured, Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes, a Republican who serves as president of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said Monday. A portion of Weld County is in the district.
Those include ballots for which a voter didn’t sign the envelope or they signed the envelope but their signature didn’t match one on file with the state. They can check whether their ballot was submitted or not at GoVoteColorado.gov.
If enough people take steps to address problems with their ballots by the deadline it could theoretically trigger an automatic recount, Koppes said.
Under Colorado law, a mandatory recount occurs when the number of votes separating the leading two candidates is less than 0.5% of the number of votes cast for the leading candidate. As of Monday afternoon, that would represent a gap of about 930 votes.
Campaigns urge voters to cure
Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats have been urging voters to check their ballot status and address any problems with them by Thursday’s deadline.
“If you voted for Congresswoman Boebert or any other Republican candidate and your ballot needs to be cured, do it now. Every cured ballot matters in a race this close,” Colorado GOP Chairman Craig Steiner said in a statement last week.
Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Shad Murib said voters should check their ballot status.
Boebert’s campaign is calling voters, knocking on doors and offering assistance when needed, the campaign’s lawyer, Gessler, a Republican who was formerly Colorado’s secretary of state, said last week.
He said the campaign is investigating “some very unusual voting patterns” but he didn’t provide any proof or explanation for that claim, saying he didn’t have enough information yet. Local elections officials have not reported any issues with voting in the 4th District this year.
When Boebert was in another tight race against Democrat Adam Frisch in the 3rd Congressional District in 2022, an army of volunteers and Democratic and Republican party officials doggedly tracked down voters with problem ballots to help them fix them so their ballots could be counted.
Laubacher’s campaign manager, Taylor Gillespie, declined to comment on any efforts to get voters to cure ballots. However, Laubacher’s campaign has asked for donations to help fight Boebert’s “election-denying scheme.”
“We are going to need to raise a lot of money to fight back and make sure every vote is fairly counted so Lauren Boebert doesn’t steal this election,” the campaign said in a text message on Saturday.
Kelly Maher, a veteran Republican strategist, said a path to victory for Boebert is very narrow.
Boebert could gain votes through curing ballots in the rural districts where she won handily but there are fewer votes to chase there, Maher said. Meanwhile, it could be hard to pick up a lot of votes in more populated places like Douglas County, where Laubacher has won 54% of the vote so far. Some voters contacted could end up being Laubacher supporters, she noted.
“The danger of ballot curing is extremely high,” Maher said.
Efforts to get voters to cure their ballots seem to be making only a small dent so far. About 50 voters on the cure list in Weld County followed up over the weekend to make sure their ballots got counted, Koppes said.
About 700 voters in Weld County, where Boebert has won 57.5% of the vote, didn’t vote for a candidate, Koppes said. Across the district, about 2,000 voters didn’t cast a vote in the race, she said.
Douglas Mangeris, a Libertarian, had 3.3% of the vote as of Monday evening.
