Update: Democrat Adam Frisch conceded the race on Friday, saying that while a recount will help prove the reliability of Colorado's election system, it would be "disingenuous" tell supporters that it is likely to change the outcome. His announcement came the morning after Rep. Boebert took to Twitter to declare her victory Read our latest here.
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The razor-close race to represent Colorado’s 3rd District enters a critical phase Thursday as clerks count their very final batches of ballots. As new results have trickled in through the day, the margin between Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert and her Democratic challenger Adam Frisch has continued to narrow.
By late afternoon, Boebert's lead had shrunk to around 500 votes, putting the race within the margin for an automatic recount. Colorado law mandates a recount if the number of votes between the top two candidates equals less than 0.5 percent of the votes cast for the leading candidate.
At midnight last night, the window closed for voters to fix any problems that caused their ballots to be rejected, and for ballots to arrive from members of the military and residents currently overseas.
That deadline capped off a week of furious activity as both campaigns, as well as outside groups, did everything they could to convince voters to fix problems with their ballots. Those efforts, according to one local official, at times crossed the line into harassment.
Now the district’s 27 counties are tallying their final ballots, which also include an unknown number of regularly cast ballots that they held out to ensure these final vote tallies are large enough to keep individual ballots anonymous.
The margin between the two candidates is expected to continue shifting today and possibly into Friday as these last results are uploaded to the Secretary of State’s office.
After Friday, the vote counting enters a new phase, as clerks conduct risk-limiting audits. They’ll check the choices on randomly selected paper ballots against how the tally machines recorded them, to make sure the machines worked correctly.
The Secretary of State will certify the election results on Dec. 5 and at that point will order recounts in any races that fall under a legal threshold. If the votes end up above that trigger point, the trailing campaign has until Dec. 6 to request a recount that it would pay for. In recent recounts, the number of votes changed has ended up being negligible.
More 3rd Congressional District coverage:
- Wait, so why is it taking so long to count votes in Colorado? Here’s why — and other ballot counting questions, answered.
- Frisch is a moderate Democrat and former Aspen City Council member. He made a centrist pitch to voters as he faced an uphill battle in District 3.
- Read our full November 2022 interview with Adam Frisch. He talked about ballot curing, voter turnout and whether he’s "Democratic enough."
- It quickly became clear on Election Night that hardline conservative Rep. Lauren Boebert would face a tougher-than-expected reelection race.
- Residents of Colorado’s vast 3rd District woke up on the days following Election Night without knowing who would represent them in Congress for the next two years. Here's what they have to say.
- Efforts from both parties to reach voters who needed to cure their uncounted ballots quickly ramped up. Some voters felt like all the calls, emails and even door-knocking bordered on harassment, while others were pleased to be at the center of things.
