DENVER (KDVR) — If you thought the Denver mayoral race was over, think again. The Clerk and Recorder’s office is still counting ballots and some candidates are telling city residents not to count them out.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough are still leading in votes.
Johnston is holding steady with around 25% of the votes, but Brough’s numbers are shrinking a bit.
At one point on election night, Brough had about 23% of the votes. Wednesday, that number is a little under 21%.
Gaining in percentages as votes continue to be counted is Dr. Lisa Calderón, moving up from about 15% Tuesday night to over 17% Wednesday evening. There are also several city council races with candidates leading by razor-thin margins.
55,000 ballots came in the last two hours
An important note: the Clerk’s Office still has more than 20,000 ballots to count.
Calderón put out a statement on Twitter Wednesday saying she’s confident she’ll be one of the two candidates in the runoff. The Clerk’s Office said they are still working through all the ballots, as a lot of people turned them in at the last minute.
“We’re excited to see that about 175,000 Denverites voted over the last 22 days since we mailed ballots on March 13th. 44% of all folks turned in their ballots yesterday and over 55,000 ballots came in during those last two hours,” Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul López said.
While more than 55,000 ballots were returned within the last two eligible hours of voting, leaders said voting late is better than not voting at all. But election workers can only count the ballots once they have them.
The clerk said he does not mind waiting for totals because it means people are easily accessing Denver’s voting system.
“We are able to get through this process, match signatures, without compromising accessibility. If all we have to wait is a couple of days for results, trading off with what other counties around this country and this nation have to deal with, being barred and making it harder for them to vote, then I say that’s a win in my book,” López said.
The Office of the Clerk and Recorder is set to have teams back in at 8 a.m. Thursday to continue processing a little over 23,000 ballots that are in the late processing stages, with another update on races set to come Thursday afternoon.