Despite clear instructions, some unaffiliated voters are still returning two ballots, not one

More than half of Eagle County’s voters aren’t affiliated with a political party. A small portion of those people have a hard time with instructions.

Unaffiliated voters receive two ballots for primary elections, one for Democrats, one for Republicans. Voters can send back only one of those ballots or neither one will count. There’s no way to correct that mistake.

Ballots to unaffiliated voters have special instructions, and the secrecy sleeves have instructions, printed in red, informing voters to send back only one party’s ballot.

But every time there’s a primary, between 4% and 5% of voters send back ballots for both parties, invalidating their votes. That’s happened this year, too.

Eagle County Clerk and Recorder Regina O’Brien said a success rate of about 95% is still pretty good, but she wishes it was better.

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Her office this year sent every double voter in the spring presidential primary a letter about the rules.
“We didn’t have to do that,” she said. “But we didn’t want voters to make the same mistake.”

There isn’t much action for either party in this year’s state and local primary election.

The Democrats have the only local contested primary election. Sarah Smith Hymes and Tom Boyd are competing for their party’s nomination for the District 2 seat on the Eagle County Board of Commissioners.

The winner of that race will be the presumptive winner of the race to replace incumbent Commissioner Kathy Chandler-Henry, who is stepping down when her current term expires in January. There is no Republican candidate for that seat.

The only other contested races on the Democratic ballot are for the Congressional District 2 seat on the State Board of Education. Kathy Gebhardt and Marisol Lynda Rodriguez are competing for their party’s nomination for that position.

The other contested Democratic race is for an at-large seat for regent on the University of Colorado Board. Elliott Hood and Charles “CJ” Johnson are competing for a spot on the November ballot.

The county’s Republican ballot has only a six-way race for the Republican nomination for the 3rd Congressional District, replacing incumbent Lauren Boebert. That district contains just a small sliver of Eagle County these days.

In that race, Stephen A. Varela, Ron Hanks, Lew Webb, Russ Andrews, Curtis McCrackin and Jeff Hurd are competing for a spot on the November ballot.

Given the lack of action on the parties’ ballots, O’Brien said turnout so far has been low. As of June 20, O’Brien said turnout is running about 2,600 ballots behind turnout on the same date in 2020.

Ballots must be returned to a drop box or voting center on June 25 no later than 7 p.m.