{"id":15782,"date":"2025-11-04T19:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T02:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-montezuma-trails-other-counties-in-reporting-election-results\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:50:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:50:34","slug":"update-montezuma-trails-other-counties-in-reporting-election-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-montezuma-trails-other-counties-in-reporting-election-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Montezuma trails other counties in reporting election results"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A voter pulls up in a car to submit her ballot just before 11 a.m. Monday at a drop box behind the Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder\u2019s Office. By 11 a.m. on the day before Election Day, about 5,000 ballots had been counted from more than 20,900 registered active voters. (Benjamin Rubin\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Close to an hour and a half past the Election Day deadline, Montezuma County was the last remaining county to report unofficial election results, according to the Colorado Secretary of State.<\/p>\n

By 8:21 p.m., 51 out of 64 counties had partially reported results, while 12 were listed as \u201cElection Night Complete.\u201d That left only Montezuma County.<\/p>\n

Early results for Montezuma County arrived at about 8:24 p.m., according to the state secretary\u2019s database.<\/p>\n

About 7,800 of 20,900, or nearly 40% of registered voter in Montezuma County had returned their ballots an hour before Tuesday\u2019s 7 p.m. Election Day deadline.<\/p>\n

The turnout so far shows that residents are participating in decisions on regional school district seats and local and statewide tax measures.<\/p>\n

At about five minutes to the 7 p.m. Election Day deadline, judges gathered ballots from a drop off box behind the Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

A final handful of last-minute voters pulled up in cars to pass ballots on to the judges and drive away.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife will be very glad I dropped her ballot off,\u201d said Dave Edwards, one of the final night\u2019s voters.<\/p>\n

There are more than 20,900 active registered voters in the county, according to Kim Percell, Montezuma County clerk and recorder. Ballots were mailed Oct. 17.<\/p>\n

As of late Monday morning, approximately 5,000 ballots had been submitted, Percell said, with 4,276 returned by Oct. 31 and about 700 collected Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Around 6 p.m. on Election Day, the county election office had recorded about 7,800 ballots, bringing the count up from a quarter of registered voters to roughly 40%<\/p>\n

\u201cWe normally get a good push of ballots on the Monday before and on Election Day,\u201d said Percell.<\/p>\n

She noted that this year is a coordinated election, unlike last year\u2019s presidential election, which drew higher turnout.<\/p>\n

For Tuesday\u2019s Nov. 4 Election Day, the Cortez Vote Center at the Montezuma County Annex was open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Drop boxes across the county remained open 24 hours a day until 7 p.m. on Election Day.<\/p>\n

Voters are deciding on a range of seats and initiatives, from local to statewide.<\/p>\n

Local issues include school board seats and a funding measure for Mancos School District RE-6, as well as tax proposals related to water and the Cortez Cemetery District.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, two statewide propositions ask voters to weigh in on school meal funding.<\/p>\n

Preliminary data from the Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office<\/a> as of Oct. 30 shows that 1,650 Montezuma County voters were registered Republicans. Unaffiliated voters totaled 1,520, and registered Democrats numbered just over 700.<\/p>\n

Preliminary data from the Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office as of Oct. 30 shows that 1,650 Montezuma County voters were registered Republicans. Unaffiliated voters totaled 1,520, and registered Democrats numbered just over 700.<\/p>\n

Percell said a team of six bipartisan tabulation judges began work Oct. 28. They will release unofficial initial results shortly after the 7 p.m. deadline.<\/p>\n

The team may work until midnight if necessary and resume the next day, though Percell said that was unlikely.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t expect that, but we always have a pretty good push on the last two days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

40% active registered voters have cast their ballots as of Election Day evening<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15782","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=15782"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19839,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15782\/revisions\/19839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15782"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}