Early returns of 2022 Mail Ballots in Chaffee County show the county following a national pattern. Returns here are running ahead of prior years, and more than 16 million ballots have already been returned in early-voting states nationwide.
Signature Verification Judges and Ballot deconstruction judges will begin work at 1:00 p.m. Friday, October 28 at the Historic Chaffee County Courthouse building. Note that Friday, October 28, the Election Office inside 104 Crestone Avenue will be closed because staff and election judges will be working in the verification location. The Rotary Scout Hut in Salida is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. today for those who want to vote in person in Salida.
“The Courthouse will be locked so if [political parties] have watchers assigned, please have them report to the west entrance of the Courthouse at 1:00 p.m. and they will be let in and escorted to the Commissioners’ Meeting Room,” explained County Clerk and Recorder Lori Mitchell.
Chaffee county received 333 mail ballots on Thursday, for a total to date of 2,479. There were zero in-person voters at the Scout Hut Vote Center. By comparison, on this same day in the 2018 General Election the county received 600 mail ballots, but at that point in time had a running total of 1,920.
Returned mail ballots by party:
Democrats 807
Republican 664
Unaffiliated 977
Statistics of Note as of October 27, 2022:
20.4 percent of registered Democrats have voted.
15.6 percent of registered Republicans have voted.
13.5 percent of Unaffiliated voters have voted.
Of the total 2,479 mail ballots returned:
Democrats make up 32.5 percent
Republicans make up 26.7 percent
Unaffiliated voters make up 39.4 percent
Other parties make up 2.4 percent
Here are some of the questions that have been fielded by Chaffee elections staff this week:
- “We continue to get calls from angry voters wondering why they can’t vote on City of Salida measures,” wrote Mitchell in her report.”[The] short answer is, you don’t live in the city of Salida.”
- Voters should be aware that if you live in Poncha Springs, your ballot is going to look different than the rest of the county, as Poncha Springs residents won’t have the housing authority question. The Town of Poncha Springs opted not to join the multi-jurisdictional Housing Authority when it was formed.
- Yes, the local TABOR notice listed all local measures that qualified as a TABOR issue, but not all of those issues may be on your ballot. Yet for cost efficiency they had to be included on the ballot (The Clerk and Recorder’s Office explains that “the notice requires us to send at least cost to households”.) There is a disclaimer on the notice explaining to voters that you may not be able to vote on all measures.
- Voters have to make up their own minds on issues; the Chaffee Clerk and Recorder’s Office is not allowed to advise voters on how to vote on issues.
Mitchell informed news media that there was one watcher on hand for Signature Verification processes on Thursday, appointed by the County Republican Party. She noted that “The Judges were so efficient that they already processed all of the ballots we had received before today”.
With Mail Ballots being dropped off at ballot boxes, there have been only a few in-person voters. Another poll watcher appointed by the Republican Party was at the Scout Hut on Thursday, but not for all day, and didn’t have much to do. “There are only so many word search puzzles you can do before you have to leave because you haven’t seen a voter,” added Mitchell.
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