More than 60,000 ballots went missing in Adams County, but the clerk — whose own ballot was among those — says they have been located and are on their way to voters.
Adams County elections officials said Tuesday the estimated 61,000 ballots are in the hands of the U.S. Postal Service. That’s a fourth of the county’s registered voters.
The delay stretches back to Oct. 15, when the county’s print vendor dropped off Adams County ballots at a mail facility.
At the time, roughly 61,000 ballots were returned to an unspecified secure location and didn’t make it into the mail stream, according to a statement posted online by Adams County Clerk and Recorder Stan Martin.
The ballots were found after hearing from voters who didn’t get ballots, Martin’s statement said. The ballots have been handed over to the postal service and delivery will happen during the next few days.
The statement said Martin’s ballot was among those that failed to make it to the mail stream on time.
The ZIP codes impacted most are: 80241, 80601, 80602, 80640 and 80011, the clerk and recorder’s office said.
Adams County, the fifth most populous county in Colorado, had 243,227 active registered voters in September, according to Secretary of State data.
The missing ballots impacted voters with both major parties, unaffiliated voters and third-party voters.
The political party breakdown offered by Martin’s office:
Democratic: 19,000
Republican: 17,000
Unaffiliated: 24,000
Minor Party: 1,000
These ratios are consistent with party affiliation percentages throughout Adams County, the statement said.