Primary ballots on the way to 215,000 Jeffco voters
JEFFERSON COUNTY – The ballots are in the mail.
The Jeffco Clerk & Recorder’s Office delivered nearly 215,000 primary election ballots to the Post Office and they should be arriving in mailboxes across the county beginning Tuesday, according to County Clerk and Recorder Pam Anderson.
The ballots contain a number of heated races as well as a number of uncontested races that won’t heat up until November’s General Election.
Among the top races are Libertarian, Republican and Democrat battles for the U.S. Senate nomination on November’s ballot to replace former Sen. Ken Salazar, who resigned to become Secretary of the Interior in the Obama administration. The major party candidates – Ken Buck and Jane Norton on the GOP slate and Andrew Romanoff and Michael Bennet on the Democrat’s ticket – have launched expensive and pointed television advertising campaigns. The Libertarian candidates for the Senate seat, Maclyn “Mac” Stringer and John Finger, have gone virtually unnoticed.
County Republicans also will choose an candidate to replace single-term Gov. Bill Ritter, who decided not to seek re-election earlier this year amid falling approval ratings from nearly all points of the political compass. Dan Maes of Evergreen and Scott McInnis of Colorado Springs are seeking the GOP nomination. The Libertarian gubernatorial candidates are Dan “Kilo” Sallis and Jaimes Brown. Democrat John Hickenlooper is running unopposed for state government’s top job.
All or parts of four U.S. House Districts are in Jefferson County, districts 1, 2, 6 and 7.
Republicans have contested races for all but one, incumbent Mike Coffman’s District 6 seat. There are no contested U.S. House races on the primary ballot for Jeffco’s Democrats. Libertarians have candidates in only one U.S. House race, District 1.
Four state Senate races on Jeffco’s ballot are up for grabs in November: districts 16, 20, 22, 23, 24 and 25. The only contested primary state Senate race is in Dist. 20, where David Ruchman is challenging Cheri Jahn. The nine state Representative seats on the ballot are uncontested in both major parties.
Also on the ballot are a number of other state races including state Attorney General, state Treasurer, seats on the Colorado Board of Education and CU’s Board of Regents, and six county offices: Assessor, Clerk & Recorder, Treasurer, Assessor, Sheriff, Coroner and Surveyor.
There are no County Surveyor candidates on any party’s ballot.
Click on these links for Jeffco’s countywide sample GOP primary ballot, the Democrats’ primary ballot and the Libertarians’ primary ballot.
And the County Clerk & Recorder’s Office again has opened an on-line link so county voters can peruse the primary ballot, customized by precinct, said Josh Liss, Jeffco’s Deputy of Elections.
“Going live on our website today is our regular ballot tracking system where a voter can type in their date of birth and their address and see a unique ballot sample for their specific precinct,” Liss said. “They can also get a listing of drop-off locations.”
The link, www.votejeffco.com , also allows individual voters to see when their ballot was mailed to them and when it is received and processed by the Clerk’s Office.
All registered Democratic, Libertarian or Republican voters in the county should receive their ballots in the next several days.
“The 2010 Primary Election is being conducted as a mail ballot election,” Anderson said. “It has been our goal to get those ballots to voters as soon as possible, so we are pleased that we were able to drop off the bulk of our ballots this early.”
Anderson’s office began delivering ballots to the United States Postal Service on Monday, and more will be delivered throughout the week.
Voters must attach a 44-cent first-class postage stamp to the envelope when mailing their completed ballots to the county. Ballots also can be dropped off at 11 locations across the county: the Arvada Motor Vehicle office, 6510 Wadsworth Boulevard; Evergreen Motor Vehicle office, 4990 County Highway 7; Lakewood Motor Vehicle office, 2099 Wadsworth Boulevard; the South Jeffco Motor Vehicle office, 6004 South Kipling St., Littleton; the Jefferson County Elections office, 100 Jefferson County Parkway; Arvada City Hall: 8101 Ralston Road; Edgewater City Hall, 2401 Sheridan Boulevard, Edgewater; Golden City Hall, 911 10th Street; Lakewood City Hall, 480 South Allison Parkway; Wheat Ridge City Hall, 7500 West 29th Ave.; and Westminster City Hall, 4800 West 92nd Ave.
The ballot drop-off deadline to drop off voted ballots is 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Aug. 10. The Clerk and Recorder’s office must receive mailed ballots by the same deadline. A postmark is not evidence of receipt by the county.
