If there is one virtue voters will do well to arm themselves with this Election Day, it is patience.
The lines to cast a ballot are likely to be long, in Colorado and elsewhere in the country.
It’s also possible that the wait for votes to be tallied could stretch into days. And surely, with so many lawyers lining up on both sides, there will be legal challenges galore.
We hope voters, an overwhelming number disenchanted by what they see as a country off track, ultimately will have a fair and thorough accounting of their preferences — even if it takes awhile.
And it very well may. A tidal wave of newly registered voters combined with high turnout could make for a chaotic Election Day.
If, on top of that, the resulting presidential count is close, then it will go on for days as provisional ballots are contested in every county of each close state. With an economic crisis brewing, and national security matters still looming large, the country doesn’t need a protracted or disputed election. Whoever emerges from that scenario could have an exceedingly difficult time governing.
Hopefully, it won’t come to that. But today, the order of business is to get all the ballots cast.
In Colorado, voters will speed the process if they bring with them a list of their preferences, particularly for the many down-ballot items.
We’ve included on this page a truncated summary of our recommendations, which voters should feel free to clip and mark up with their own choices when they differ from ours.
Democracy can be messy, inefficient and downright aggravating, but it is at its finest when people are motivated to participate. This election could very well highlight the best and the worst of our system.
