County canvass confirms election results

RBC — County election officials canvassed votes and completed the post-election audit Nov. 13.
Both went well, said County Clerk Nancy Amick. There was only one small glitch.
“There was an issue with the number of mail-in ballots for Precinct No. 4,” Amick said. “We were one off from the machine count. Fortunately, it did not affect any races.
“In the ‘heat of the battle’ on Election Day, we believe that we neglected to check in a Precinct 4 ballot and the judge’s count of envelopes was off by one,” Amick said.
After consulting with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, Amick was instructed “to have the canvass board include a statement of the anomaly with the canvass. They reviewed the post-election procedures that we followed and concluded, as we have, that two ballots were returned in one envelope with no way to track the extra ballot.”
Of the 3,164 ballots cast, there were a record 1,450 mail-in ballots received and 698 people voted early. The record for early voting was 744 in the 2004 general election.
The turnout for the general election tied the record of 87 percent set in 2004.
“When we added in the 14 accepted provisional ballots, the percentage (of voter turnout) jumped to 87 percent,” Amick said.
However, there were 143 more voters in this election than in 2004, Amick said.
“We were very pleased with the turnout,” Amick said. “I’m thinking that the presidential race made the turnout so high. People my age, who had never voted, came in to register in order to vote. That is so good to see and, hopefully, they will continue in future elections.”
In the race for president, Rio Blanco County voters overwhelmingly supported the McCain/Palin ticket with 2,437 votes, while there were 655 ballots cast for the winning Democratic ticket of Obama/Biden.
Locally, Republican candidates on the ballot were the top vote-getters in every race. In the U.S. Senate race, Rio Blanco County voters cast 2,217 ballots for Bob Schaffer and 709 for Democrat Mark Udall, who was the eventual winner.
The local outcome was closer for the U.S. Congress seat, District 3, with 1,934 votes for Republican Wayne Wolf and 1,098 votes for the incumbent Democrat John Salazar, who was re-elected.
For the Colorado Senate seat, District 8, Rio Blanco County voters cast 2,448 ballots for the Republican winner Al White, and 520 for Ken Brenner.
And, for the state House, District 57, Rio Blanco County voters supported Republican winner Randy Baumgardner with 2,204 votes, while Democrat Todd Hagenbuch received 684 votes.