Yet-to-be counted ballots in Arapahoe and Adams counties are keeping the question of who gets control of the Colorado House of Representatives next year a mystery.
Both counties feature tight races that could flip one way or the other depending on what uncounted ballots show. Wednesday morning, there were 25,000 in each county that needed to be counted.
Four races favor Republicans but still have thousands of ballots outstanding, making it difficult to tell how badly Democrats’ 37-28 advantage in the House will be shrunk or whether it will be turned over altogether.
“We are currently up in four races but we remain cautiously optimistic,” House Minority Leader Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, said Wednesday afternoon. “We know there are ballots that still need to be counted.”
The drama in Colorado’s House races , which could still land in the majority hands of either party.
Speculation swirls around two Adams County-based House races that currently show a slight advantage for the Republican candidates, JoAnn Windholz and Carol Beckler. But with all the uncounted ballots in what is a Democratic-leaning county, Democrats hold out hope that final results will bring the races back to the win column for the incumbents, Rep. Joe Salazar and Rep. Jenise May.
Adams County officials said ballot counting could stretch into Thursday.
“These are strongholds for Democrats,” said State Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora. “So I think these are going to come back in favor of the Democrats.”
Fields also held out hope that Democrat Rep. Daniel Kagan will prevail against Republican challenger Candice Benge in the House district that lies in Denver and Arapahoe counties. Benge holds a lead of fewer than 125 votes, but the thousands of uncounted ballots in Arapahoe County make that result far from certain.
Another Arapahoe County House race, between Democratic Rep. Su Ryden and Republican Richard Bowman, shows Ryden with a 181-vote lead out of more than 20,000 ballots tallied.
A race in southwestern Colorado between Democratic Rep. Mike McLachlan and Republican J. Paul Brown is still too close to call, with several thousands ballots still being tallied. Brown holds a lead of a little more than 300 votes out of more than 33,000 counted.
John Aguilar: 303-954-1695, jaguilar@denverpost.com or twitter.com/abuvthefold
