GREELEY — Weld County Clerk and Recorder Carly Koppes has 2,381 votes from House District 50 left to count.
In a race where 16,854 ballots have been counted and a mere 70 divide the two candidates, those remaining votes could mean all the difference.
Koppes said of the ballots left to be tallied, 745 are Democrats, 535 are Republicans, 1,042 are Unaffiliated and 59 are minor parties.
The race has drawn state and national attention with special interests putting an estimated $750,000 into the election. The seat is being vacated by outgoing Democrat Rep. Dave Young, who was elected state treasurer on Tuesday.
Democrats have controlled the seat in the historically blue section of Weld County for nearly two decades. However, the campaign of Democrat candidate Rochelle Galindo, who served two years on Greeley City Council before abandoning that seat to run for the House seat, was plagued with problems.
Michael Thuener has never held public office. He is a two-tour, Iraq Army Veteran.
Thuener held the lead until last night when Galindo moved in front.
Koppes said there are 76 “cures,” which mean voters were sent a letter saying something was wrong with their signature, and that they have seven days to cure the problem or their vote won’t count.
Koppes is hopeful there will be an answer today. There are still 16,400 ballots total remaining in Weld to count due to a large number of in-person voting on election day. She will make another update at noon and again when she is done counting for the day.
In order to trigger an automatic recount, the difference in votes needs to be within one-third of one-half percent, Koppes said.
Either candidate can pay for a recount outside that margin only after the votes have been certified.
Stay close to www.completecolorado.com/pagetwo for more updates.
