Democrat Stephen Ludwig declared himself the winner of an at-large seat on the University of Colorado board of regents today, three weeks after a bungled election that took days to sort out.
Ludwig claims he won by about 5,800 votes, enough that the race will not head to an automatic recount.
But Republican Brian Davidson was not conceding. He said he would wait for the official tally from the secretary of state’s office, which is due by Friday.
Ludwig said he gathered election results from each of Colorado’s 64 county clerks by phone or online this week.
“I’m relieved, of course,” said Ludwig, who scheduled a Sunday victory party. “It was such an unexpected outcome – to have to wait three weeks to figure out who won.”
He said that if Denver had not “turned away an estimated 20,000 people at the polls, this race would have been done on Election Day.”
It’s the first time since 1976 that a Democrat was elected to the state-wide seat, Ludwig said.
Ludwig, a former television reporter who is now a communications consultant, ran on a campaign to improve diversity among students and staff, and engage the university in more business partnerships to drive the economy.
Davidson, an anesthesiologist who was heading to a 20-hour shift at University of Colorado Hospital, said he would hit the phones and Internet tomorrow to gather the tally himself if he had not heard from the secretary of state.
“It’s very annoying,” he said, adding that he’s tired of having to “sit and wonder about counting errors and human errors.”
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
