AURORA | Nearly three days after the midterm election, the fate of state politics comes down to a relative handful of ballots waiting to be counted in Adams County.
State Democrats say they’re confident they will win 33 seats in the state House, giving them a one-seat majority, but it appears the winner of Senate District 24 in Thornton will determine control of the state Senate.
Republican Beth Martinez-Humenik led the Democrat Judy Solano by about 803 votes when tallies were released Friday afternoon. Counting of about 6,000 ballots continues, officials said.
“Right now, we don’t know who controls the Senate,” said Democratic Senate President Morgan Carroll of Aurora. Her party has controlled the chamber for 10 years.
The delay in getting something definitive from Adams County is blamed on an incredibly close race, tired judges, a write-in question and an unexpected rush of voters late on Election Day. Democrats said they were caught off guard by a Republican push in what is normally known to be a spate of Democratic strongholds.
Adams County Clerk Karen Long said the county is now down to about 6,000 ballots that must be evaluated and counted by hand because they were either overvoted, damaged or for some other reason no able to counted by machine.
Carroll said races in Jefferson County were close enough to trigger mandatory recounts. She said with provisional and overseas votes still to be counted, it’s possible that outcomes for some races won’t be known until Nov. 20, the deadline for election results to be certified.
Sen. Bill Cadman, the Colorado Springs Republican leader in the Senate, said in a statement that his party is “anxiously awaiting the final vote counts in several counties and are hopeful that the current leads we have in our Senate districts will stand.”
Split control of the Legislature will make it difficult for either party to drive an ambitious agenda, and it could make a debate next year over hydraulic fracturing even more contentious.
Adams County spokesman Jim Siedlecki said election officials will resume counting the remainder of ballots in the morning.
“That’s where things could take a little time,” he said.
In Aurora, a once Democratic stronghold is currently going to Republicans. House District 30 Rep. Jenise May, an Aurora Democrat, is trailing Commerce City Republican challenger Joanne Windholz by about 229 votes, as of Friday, according to Adams County election results. The seat has been held by a Democrat for decades.
Updated results released late Thursday showed Winholz’s lead had shrunk by more than 200 votes after an earlier count showed her lead widening.
The oft-ignored surveyor’s election in Adams County is slowing things dow, Siedlecki said. Because there were no certified candidates for Adams County surveyor, Siedlecki said many voters wrote in a candidate, which has meant more write-in ballots than is typical.
Siedlecki said the county has a full staff of election judges on Thursday, but that wasn’t the case on Wednesday. After working well into the night on Election Day, Siedlecki said about 25 percent of the county’s election judges didn’t show up Wednesday because they were exhausted. Counting was been faster Thursday, Siedlecki said, because election judges from other counties have chipped in to help.
In Arapahoe County, state Rep. Su Ryden appears to have barely hung onto her east Aurora state House seat, claiming victory against Republican Richard Bowman by about 650 votes
Officials in Arapahoe County are still counting a few ballots — including military and overseas ballots that can come in until next week — but none of the county’s races are expected to change. Clerk and recorder Matt Crane said Friday that the county mailed just 1,800 ballots to uniformed military personnel, and not all of those will be returned.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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