Don’t wait to mail ballots

Voters who have not received a ballot can register to vote through Election Day at the La Plata County Clerk and Recorder’s Office, 98 Everett St., Suite C, or the Bayfield motor vehicle office at 1199 Bayfield Parkway. Ballots postmarked on or by that date may still be in the mail when ballots are counted.

To avoid that fate, voters should get their ballots in the mail by the end of this week. The El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s Office joined the state by instructing voters to bring their ballots straight to the ballot box to make sure they get counted.

Morgan County Clerk Susan Bailey delivered that message to the Morgan County Board of County Commissioners during its weekly meeting Tuesday.

Delivering the ballots in person will ensure people’s ballots are counted appropriately, she said.

“It’s too early to tell at this point if anyone has tried to return a ballot by mail to our office that we haven’t received yet”, said Parsell.

On Wednesday, a day after we advised voters to hand-deliver their ballots, the postal service came up with what it sees as solutions to legitimate concerns raised by our office and a number of clerks.

You can use the new Voter Dashboard to check the status of your vote-by-mail ballot. The earlier ballots are returned, the earlier election night results can be released.

In a bond election next Tuesday, November 3, voters will decide whether to support up to $96 million in bonds to pay for as many as 20 projects.

The correct ballot includes Proposition 1 for sales tax and the candidates for this year’s town council elections: Pat Argyle, Darin Pugmire (both incumbents) and write-in candidate Andrew Stokes.

“Here’s the bottom line”, Rupert said.