It’s Nov. 3 — election day. Finally.
After months of campaigning, thousands of campaign ads — with hundreds of them containing false and misleading information — two painful presidential debates, multiple local candidate forums … after rallies and protests and intimidation by groups from rightwing militias to patriot groups warning of civil war …
After an unprecedented early voter turnout … in the midst of a once-in-a century pandemic, the American people get to have their say.
Today — ‘We the people’ — the most beautiful phrase in the history of the world except ‘I love you’ — will have our say. Today — ‘We the people’ will make our voices heard.
For Colorado, where mail ballots have been returned in unprecedented numbers over the past two weeks, this is the last day to vote. Even if you aren’t yet registered, in Colorado you can go to a voting center, show your picture ID and proof of Colorado residency, and be registered to vote. Just do it by 7:00 p.m.
When you vote, you’ll join the 12,362 people who had voted by close of ballot centers last night. Even before election day began, more people had voted in the state of Colorado than voted here in the 2016 election. Some 920 mail ballots were returned yesterday and 268 people walked up to vote in person.
The county has 15,279 active voters; so even before the polls opened at 7:00 a.m. this morning, this county’s response rate has reached 83 percent.
Chaffee County Clerk and Recorder Lori Mitchell says her goal is high. “I want us to reach 90 percent here in Chaffee County,” she said last week. “We can do it. If we do, we might set the record for the state of Colorado.”
Vote returns as of Monday evening:
Affiliation Reg. Active Mail In person Total %
Democrat 3,991 3,549 39 3,588 90%
Republican 4,622 3,823 104 3,927 85%
Unaffiliated 6,464 4,850 114 4,964 77%
Libertarian 139 93 7 100 72%
Some 100 million people had already cast their votes all across this country by Monday evening. The turnout is unprecedented.
While this is the last day to vote, and we have been assured that we will know Chaffee’s vote tonight, and likely Colorado’s choices, it is also likely that counting this unprecedented turnout across the nation will take a few days. Every state has its own rules regarding balloting. Some of them, particularly battleground states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, allow ballots postmarked by today to be counted in the days after the election, and states don’t certify their election results for several days. Until election results are certified — they aren’t final.
So besides pride in our representative republic, trust that our votes will count, faith in our democratic system, we all need to practice one other human emotion to wait out this week: Patience.
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