{"id":136690,"date":"2026-06-30T13:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-primary-turnout-surges-on-election-day\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T13:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:54:14","slug":"montezuma-county-primary-turnout-surges-on-election-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-primary-turnout-surges-on-election-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County primary turnout surges on Election Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Voting
Voting stickers at the Montezuma County Clerk\u2019s office at the ballot drop-off station. (The Journal file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Thousands of last-minute voters cast ballots Tuesday in Montezuma County, the last day of the Colorado primary election, which included two locally contested races and several statewide races.<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday afternoon, Montezuma County had received just shy of 6,000 ballots, up from about 4,500 earlier that morning, said County Clerk Kim Percell.<\/p>\n

She said more than 2,000 ballots had arrived Monday, and returns continued to pour in as election staff processed ballots Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, our last two days of the election are when we get the majority of our ballots,\u201d Percell said. \u201cI have been viewing my videos for drop boxes, and they have been extremely busy, so I\u2019m expecting a large quantity of ballots returned to us today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Looking for results?<\/h4>\n

Election results from Tuesday\u2019s primary came in after our print deadline. To view results, visit www.the-journal.com, and check out next week\u2019s print edition of The Journal for full coverage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The primary day deadline caps a winter and spring election season for five Republican candidate campaigns in which Montezuma County organizations hosted debates, forums and town hall appearances.<\/p>\n

Republicans Lenetta Shull and Jerri Frizzell are running for the position of clerk and recorder, while GOP commissioner candidates include Bonnie Anderson, Rodney Cox and Diane Fox-Spratlen.<\/p>\n

Democrat Rebecca Busic is running unopposed for the commissioner seat. The candidates are seeking the District 1 seat currently held by Jim Candelaria.<\/p>\n

The slate of debates<\/a> saw large turnout as candidates outlined their priorities and answered questions about how they would approach local issues, such as economic growth, governance over the Sheriff\u2019s Office, and the county budget.<\/p>\n

\"Jerri
Jerri Frizzell, left, and Lenetta Shull participated in a debate hosted by the Montezuma County Republicans and moderated by former Montezuma County schoolteacher Sara Broersma in early May. (Ann Marie Vanderveen\/The Journal file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Diane
Diane Fox-Spratlen answers a question May 26 during a Republican primary debate for Montezuma County commissioner in Yellow Jacket. (Anna Watson\/The Journal file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Running unopposed on the GOP ticket is Ellen Black for county treasurer, Tyson Cox for county sheriff and George Deavers for coroner.<\/p>\n

The primary election is chalked full of races for federal and state offices as well, with both Republicans and Democrats campaigning. Those includes contests for U.S. senator, Colorado governor, U.S. Rep. District 3, secretary of state and several running for attorney general.<\/p>\n

\"A
A drop box located near the back of the Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder\u2019s Office at 140 W. Main St. Suite 1 in Cortez, adjacent to the parking lot. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Election results will be posted through the Montezuma County website, which links to the Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s election night reporting. The first unofficial results were expected between 7:30 and 8 p.m., with additional updates throughout the evening.<\/p>\n

Percell said if officials cannot finish processing ballots by midnight, tabulation will resume Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on Montezuma County, let\u2019s rock it!\u201d Percell said.<\/p>\n

Voters interested in checking on their ballot\u2019s status can visit govoteColorado.gov<\/a>. Voters may also sign up to track their ballot through BallotTrax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clerk expects this week\u2019s returns to account for most ballots cast<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[28,308,29,2972,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-136690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-local-elections","tag-newsletter","tag-primary","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136692,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136690\/revisions\/136692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136690"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=136690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}