CASTLE ROCK–Nearly a week after the Nov. 3 election there is still no winner in the race to succeed term-limited District Attorney George Brauchler in Colorado’s 18th Judicial District.
According to state totals as of late Friday afternoon, Republican John Kellner, currently chief deputy prosecutor in the 18th, holds a slim 1,551 vote lead over Democrat challenger Amy Padden with 569,553 votes counted.
While Kellner is winning easily in three of the four counties that make up the district–Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln–the more populous and Democrat-leaning Arapahoe County, which includes much of the City or Aurora, had kept Padden neck and neck in the days following the election. But as the Aurora Sentinel reported on Monday, “The Douglas County clerk’s office added nearly 5,000 ballots to the aggregate total shortly before 5 p.m. Nov. 5, more than two thirds of which were cast for Kellner.”
Despite that lead, the race continues to drag on as there are still some military and other overseas ballots rolling in. In addition, representatives from both Douglas and Arapahoe verified to Complete Colorado that between the two counties there are several thousand outstanding cure ballots-those votes rejected due to signature discrepancies or other problems. That’s enough to either ensure Kellner’s victory, or potentially throw such a narrow margin into automatic recount territory, depending on how many voters make the effort to cure their ballot.
Kellner has a page up on his campaign website urging supporters within the district whose ballots have been rejected to cure those issues with their county clerk before the Nov. 12 midnight deadline, including an offer and contact information for help with the cure process if needed.
Both Douglas and Arapahoe counties plan to update their vote totals, including cured ballots, on Friday, Nov. 13.
