The Larimer County clerk was expecting a voter turnout of about 40% in Tuesday’s election.
Voters had until 7 p.m. Tuesday to return their ballots, and as of Tuesday morning, 79,258 ballots had been received by the Clerk and Recorder’s Office, according to the county’s election data dashboard, around a 29% turnout rate.
Clerk and Recorder Tina Harris said that rate should increase as voters continued to drop off ballots and vote at in-person voting centers throughout Tuesday.
“I anticipate that when this is all said and done we’ll probably be in the 40s,” she said Tuesday. “Based on the numbers we’re seeing, we’re in line with our 2023 numbers, and based on how busy our drop boxes are today, and our vote centers, that everybody is waiting until today to vote. So we’re anticipating that we’ll see a higher turnout.”
The data dashboard will be continually updated as the county receives more ballots that can be processed, Harris said.
Just over 200 election judges, temporary, bipartisan employees that are hired to process ballots, were hard at work Tuesday at the county’s counting facility, a location that opened prior to the 2024 election to accommodate the greater number of counting staff and space requirements.
“Things are flying down at the counting facility,” Harris said Tuesday.
Those employees would continue to count until deep into the night and resume Wednesday morning.
Following preliminary releases of vote totals Tuesday night and Wednesday, a “risk-limiting audit” of the election will take place, followed by a ballot curing process, in which voters who forgot to sign their ballots, have inconsistent signatures on their ballots, or who otherwise might have made mistakes while voting can be contacted and their votes confirmed.
The election results must be officially certified by Nov. 26.
