DENVER — Time is running out for you to help the city of Denver count election results faster.
The June 6 runoff election will determine the city’s next mayor, and several city council races. In April, it took two days after the election to know who would make the runoff for mayor.
Mike Johnston finished first with 24%.
Kelly Brough was second with 20%.
Of the 175,515 ballots returned in the April election, 44% of them were returned on Election Day.
Between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Election Day, 31% of the ballots were returned.
“It’s been a slow day today, and we want to make sure that folks know that they can use today. They don’t have to wait until tomorrow to be able to turn in that ballot,” Denver Clerk & Recorder Paul López said.
The more that people turn in their ballots on Monday or earlier, the more ballots can be scanned and processed and ready to be tabulated right at 7 p.m. on Election Day.
What is the clerk’s office doing differently this time around, knowing that people vote last minute?
“I mean, we’ve been reminding folks that it’s really easy to vote in Denver. From ‘Day 22,’ they can, actually, mail their ballots to us as soon as they get it,” López said.
With three days to go in the election in April, 70,791 voters had returned their ballots.
With three days to go in this runoff election, 95,711 ballots had been returned.
In 2019, with three days to go, 85,196 voters had returned their ballots.
“When we hit the button at 7 p.m., those are those ballots that have been received before Election Day,” López said. “If we get more than half that come in on Monday and Tuesday, then we can expect to see the count go all the way up until past Tuesday.”
Besides telling voters to turn in their ballots early, what is the clerk’s office doing differently?
“We still have the same model that we are continuing to work on,” López said. “At the end of the day, it all depends on folks being able to turn those ballots in, in a timely manner.”
By the end of the interview, we found out there was one change happening on Election Day.
Dinner for the election workers.
“Italian,” López said.
In April, the election workers had barbeque. Here is why we know that in the first place.
The clerk’s office updates results every 90 minutes.
In the April election, the results only updated by about 2,500 votes between 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.
The clerk’s office said it was because the workers were taking a dinner break.
“We will have breaks throughout the evening. It’s important for our election judges. They’re putting in long hours because these are folks, by the time dinner comes around, have already put in an eight-hour shift,” López said on Monday.
Voter behavior suggests many Denver voters will turn in their ballots on Tuesday. If counting takes beyond Tuesday, is that a reflection of the clerk’s office more than voters continuing to turn in their ballots last minute?
“Absolutely not. This is a Democracy. We make sure that people have the right to vote. We make sure that it’s easy for folks to vote and they have multiple choices in how to do that,” López said.
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