Chaffee County voters braved bad weather on Wednesday to turn in their 2022 mail ballots at the Chaffee County Courthouse drop box. Photo by Jan Wondra
We are 10 days away from the 2023 consolidated elections and the Chaffee County Clerk and Recorder Lori Mitchell reports that ballots are continuing to flow into the office, but the pace has slowed.
Mitchell reports that 255 ballots were returned on Friday, October 27, and 269 ballots were returned on Saturday morning, October 28.
The county has a long way to go before it reaches its normal high turnout. To date, county voters have dropped off 1,961 ballots, representing a 12.3 percent return rate to date. There are 15,886 registered voters in Chaffee County.
Election day is officially November 7, 2023 and ballots must be dropped off, or voters must be in line to vote by 7:00 p.m. for your vote to count.
I have not received my ballot in BV yet, although the Clerk confirmed it was postmarked 10/16. I have put in a “PLEASE FIND MY MAIL” for the post office. It is sorely understaffed. I’ve tried calling, no one answers. I tried stopping on Fri. afternoon — it was a 40 min wait and I didn’t. I know people in BV who have received their ballots, so it is my route. Is there anyone else in BV who has not received their ballot?
Wendy, this is serious. AVV will check and see what we can find out.
I spoke with the BV Postmaster on Sat. evening. He said my ballot came from Salida today. I have it in my hands. No further action needed.
I think the BV post office might be struggling again. I’ve been seeing the carrier going by at 8 PM again, and, in order to make their delivery metrics, they seem to be resorting to marking undelivered items as delivered and then delivering them the next day or later.
I feel bad for them. They can’t seem to hire enough people, and It is like Newman says – “The mail never stops! It just keeps coming and coming and coming, there’s never a let-up. It’s relentless. Every day it piles up more and more and more! And you gotta get it out but the more you get it out the more it keeps coming in. And then the bar code reader breaks and it’s Publishers Clearing House day.”