DENVER — “Vote early, Denver” was the message from election officials as the ballot count continues in Tuesday’s election.
Elections officials held a press conference Wednesday afternoon to share a few stats and highlights.
MORE | Live updates: 2023 Denver municipal election
Around 175,000 people in Denver voted over the last 22 days since ballots were mailed on March 13, according to Paul D. López, City of Denver Clerk.
But about 55,000, around 30% of the ballots, came in in the last two hours of Election Day.
“There's a sweet spot in terms of when you should turn that [ballot] in, get it in as soon as possible,” López said. “The longer you wait, and we've been seeing this trend, the longer you wait to turn in the ballot, the longer it's going to take for us to be able to process these.”
Despite the deluge of last-minute votes, Lopez said he anticipates all the unchallenged ballots will be counted by the end of the day Wednesday. The Denver elections office has until April 12 to cure challenged ballots.
The latest numbers were released at 2 p.m. Wednesday, shows Mike Johnston still leading with 24.67% of the vote, followed by Kelly Brough with 21.73%.
According to the city's election summary report, 12,000 additional ballots were counted since the last report was released late Tuesday evening.
Stay up-to-date by refreshing this live blog and watch election coverage on the Denver7+ app, Denver7 and Denver7 on Local3.
- Denver7 Election Day results page: https://bit.ly/3nKLrVB
- City of Denver election results: http://bit.ly/40GqhGW
