Using one of these official ballot-drop boxes means you don’t have to depend on the Post Office. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)
Without a strong mayor’s race, the Denver election so far is failing to light a fire under voters to return their ballots. With one week to go, just 10.9 percent of ballots had been returned as of Monday.
That means City Council candidates locked in tight or crowded races have a big get-out-the-vote push ahead of them. Ballots can be returned by mail, drop-box or at a voting center and must be received by 7 p.m. May 5 to count — . (Here’s . And read or .)
The Denver Elections Division’s says 37,762 ballots have been returned and had their signatures verified, while 274 have been rejected and set aside. (See .)
Here’s more detail: The Denver Elections Division mailed out 349,248 ballots for the election, to all voters considered active because they’re listed as having valid addresses. But 12,794 came back as undeliverable. That leaves as many as 298,418 voters who still have a ballot sitting on the counter. One important thing to remember: Denver voters tend to like voting on Election Day. Last November, a crush of last-minute ballots came in, stretching counting into the day after the election.
Four years ago, when Mayor Michael Hancock was one of several candidates seeking the open mayor’s office, Denver recorded 38.4 percent turnout, with 114,895 ballots cast out of 299,167 possible. In the runoff between Hancock and Chris Romer, turnout was 41.1 percent.
Hancock .
