Opinion | Calhoun: Wake-up Call

Mail-in ballots, down for the count

"X" marks the drop. We can't tell you when you'll get that mail-in ballot you requested, and then requested again. But we can lay to rest another rumor making the rounds: that mail-in ballots are only counted if a vote looks close election day. "We count every ballot," says Linda...
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“X” marks the drop.

We can’t tell you when you’ll get that mail-in ballot you requested, and then requested again. But we can lay to rest another rumor making the rounds: that mail-in ballots are only counted if a vote looks close election day.

“We count every ballot,” says Linda King, a spokeswoman at the Denver Election Division. And in fact, the division has already started processing mail-in ballots, since the law allows them to do so beginning ten days before the actual election. They’re opening those envelopes, taking out the ballots and processing them — but not actually tallying the votes.

That doesn’t happen until after the polls close at 7 p.m. November 4, King says, when the final mail-in ballot count, as well as the tallies from early voting, will be added to the votes cast that day at official polling places.

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Where you could be spending a lot of time if your mail-in ballot doesn’t arrive soon. — Patricia Calhoun

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