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DENVER (KDVR) — If it feels like we are living through an usual midterm election here in Colorado, it is because we are.

As of Thursday, 2.55 million ballots have been returned. During the 2018 midterms, 2.56 million were returned overall. Ballots were still being counted Friday.

We all know sometimes a race or two becomes too close to call but this year, there are several tight statewide races with lots of eyes on them.

“Every election cycle there are close races. That is just a truism but I think what is grabbing the attention is that this is such a high-profile close race,” said newly re-elected Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

Griswold was referring to the race for Colorado’s third congressional district between Republican Lauren Boebert and challenger Adam Frisch, but there are other races that are tight this year too, including some statewide ballot measures.

“In Colorado, voters start getting their ballot the week of October 17. So we were asking please, take your time make your choices, and get your ballots back to us but please don’t wait until election day. We had more than 150,000 ballots cast on that Monday and Tuesday.”

Alton Dillard with Denver Elections said it is typical to see voters wait until the last day to get their ballots in. He said more than 151,000 ballots were returned either Monday, November 7, or on Election Day out of the 281,000 ballots cast in Denver this season. Now, the election judges in Denver are working through the Veteran’s Day holiday and over the weekend to get it all counted. Not every county will choose to work the extra days, that decision is left up to each county clerk.

“There are still thousands of ballots out in part because military and overseas ballots can still be received until Wednesday and if there is an issue with signatures, those can be fixed until Wednesday also,” Griswold said.

After all the votes are counted by next Wednesday, a bipartisan risk-limiting audit is done to confirm the results but they won’t be certified until December 5, it is also the last day the Secretary of State can order mandatory recounts if the margin between the leading candidate and the trailing candidate is less than or equal to 0.5% of the votes cast for the leading candidate.

“After the ballots are counted, then we go into the bipartisan, risk-limiting audit, followed by a bipartisan canvas, and only after that do I certify the election for the State of Colorado and we will see the official results which determine if we go into a mandatory recount. So we are still a couple of weeks out,” Griswold said.

So the bottom line here is to be patient, the first step in all of this make sure all those outstanding votes are counted by Wednesday, November 16. Interested parties could pay for a recount too.

They have until December 6 to do that. If that happens, the last day to complete a permissive audit is December 15. The last day to complete a mandatory recount is December 13. It is safe to say our elections are not over yet.