DENVER — Denver has finished counting the votes to decide who will be the city’s next mayor, a race that is likely headed to a runoff, who will lead several city council districts, who will be Denver auditor and the future of three city ballot measures.
Stay up-to-date by refreshing this live blog and watch election coverage on the Denver7+ app, Denver7 and Denver7 on Local3.
Monday, April 17
2 p.m. | UPDATE | The City of Denver has released the final official results.
The top votes for mayor totaled:
- Mike Johnston: 42,273
- Kelly Brough: 34,627
- Lisa Calderón: 31,493
- Andy Rougeot: 19,927
- Leslie Herod: 18,506
Politics
Runoff likely between Johnston, Brough in Denver mayoral race; Calderón concedes
Friday, April 7
2 p.m. | UPDATE | The latest elections numbers in Denver's mayoral race show Mike Johnston still in the lead with 24.44% and 42,205 votes followed by Kelly Brough at 20.03% and 34,593 votes. The percentage difference between the two candidates remained virtually the same since Thursday's update.
Thursday, April 6
4 p.m. | UPDATE |Lisa Calderón on Twitter posted she is dropping out of the race. In the tweet, she thanked supporters noting she is looking forward "to campaigning for my progressive sisters, Candi CdeBaca, Shannon Hoffman and Shontel Lewis to win their runoff elections."
Calderón went on to say she planned to be a "check to the powers of our next developer backed mayor."
In Thursday's 2 p.m. latest numbers, Calderón was at 18.17% with 31,164 votes in third just behind Kelly Brough who had 20.04% and 34,375 votes.
My statement about the final results of the 2023 election. Thank you all so much for your support 💜 pic.twitter.com/yY85Nbt2Eq
— Lisa for Denver (@LisaforDenver) April 6, 2023
3:30 p.m. | UPDATE | A June 6 runoff election is all but certain between Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough after Thursday's new numbers. Johnston had 24.45% of the vote (41,926 votes) while Brough had 20.04% (34,375). As is customary in municipal elections, some ballots may still need to be cured, meaning the city needs to fix minor mistakes and do things like verify signatures.
Wednesday, April 5
5 p.m. | UPDATE | A new batch of numbers dropped with Mike Johnston remaining in the lead at 24.51% and 36,622 votes. Kelly Brough is still in second place at 20.64% with 30,850 votes. Lisa Calderón is in third place at 17.37% and 25,956 votes.
Here are the difference in totals from the 2 p.m. update:
- Mike Johnston: Gained 6,986 votes
- Kelly Brough: Gained 4,746 votes
- Lisa Calderón: Gained 6,858 votes
In the District 9 city council race, incumbent Candi CdeBaca now narrowly leads Darrel Watson, who was leading as of the 2 p.m. vote totals. CdeBaca is at 43.95% and Watson stands at 43.56% of the vote. 54 votes separate the two candidates. This will be the last update of numbers Wednesday, according to the Office of the Clerk and Recorder.
There are around 23,000 ballots remaining in the "late processing stages," according to a release from the city. Ballot processing will continue through at least 6:30 p.m. with more teams continuing to process ballots Thursday morning at 8 a.m., the city said.
2:30 p.m. | ROUGEOT CONCEDES | Andy Rougeot concedes the race after not gaining ground in the 2 p.m. Wednesday vote count. He released the following statement:
“It’s been a true honor spending the last ten months traveling our great city and meeting with Denverites fighting hard to make Denver safe and secure again. Although we came up short in this race, I hope all our supporters are proud that we brought the topics of hiring 400 new police officers, enforcing the camping ban, and fighting to make housing more affordable to the forefront in Denver. Nothing will change in our communities unless citizens step up to challenge the political status quo and I know our campaign will help change Denver for the better. Thank you to all of our supporters who spent their time, money, and efforts working to help us send a message to Denver's political class and have such a strong performance on election night.”
2:00 p.m. | UPDATE | New numbers dropped Wednesday afternoon showing 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.
1:30 p.m. | UPDATE | Ahead of an expected 2 p.m. update in Denver's election returns, elections officials held a press conference Wednesday afternoon to share a few stats and highlights. 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. With a runoff for Denver mayor likely, there were several questions raised about what ranked-choice voting could look like in local elections.
Ranked-choice voting is a system in which voters rank candidates by preference then awarding the election to the candidate who receives the majority of first-choice votes. When no candidate claims the majority of first-choice votes, the candidate that receives the least first-choice votes would be eliminated and then the ballots with that candidate as the first-choice would then have their second choice counted, according to this explainer from the legislative council staff. The process continues until a candidate secures a majority.
"We are very aware of it as an office, we have thought through quite a bit of the homework here on what it might look like for Denver voters should they want to consider it more seriously," said Lucille Wenegieme, Strategic Advisor and Spokesperson Office of Denver Clerk & Recorder.
It would be up to the city council to put the concept of ranked-choice voting on the ballot "or the citizens of the city to create an initiator ordinance for voters to consider, it is a charter change," said López.
Supporters of ranked-choice voting believe it would save money and time by avoiding runoff elections and those who oppose the idea argue it could lead to less diverse candidates winning office.
12:50 p.m. | UPDATE | 55,000 ballots were received in the last 2 hours of the election on Wednesday, said Paul D. López, City of Denver Clerk during a press conference. In terms of how this election compared to previous years, Todd Davidson, Director of Elections in Denver, said 2023 is on par with the 2011 election, over 2015 and just under the trend in 2019.
11:20 a.m. | UPDATE | Lisa Calderón said she is "confident" her mayoral campaign will head to a runoff. In a release Wednesday morning, Calderón says there are 7,679 votes separating her from making the top-two runoff. The release went on to say, "It's clear that the standout progressive candidate is going to see a shift in votes trending her way starting today at 2 p.m."
Tuesday, April 4
11:30 p.m. | UPDATE | Mike Johnston remains in the lead as of the last ballot drop of Election Day. He has 24.73% of the vote, followed by Kelly Brough with 22.25%.
If early results Tuesday night hold, Kelly Brough, the president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, and Mike Johnston, a former state senator, could be pushed to a runoff election. Read more here.
The next ballot drop will be at 2 p.m.
10 p.m. | UPDATE | Mike Johnston has extended his lead, now holding 24.66% of the vote. Kelly Brough remains in second but dropped to 22.46% of the vote. Lisa Calderón has received 14.88%, followed by Andy Rougeot with 13.1%.
The vote remains overwhelmingly against Referred Question 2O.
8:30 p.m. | UPDATE | Mike Johnston continues to hold the lead with 24.58% of the vote, followed by Kelly Brough with 23% and Lisa Calderón with 14.46%.
As for Referred Question 2O, which concerns the future of the Park Hill Golf Course, the "no's" are in the lead with 60.34% of the vote.
7:50 p.m. | HANSEN CONCEDES | Chris Hansen has conceded in the race for mayor.
"It was going to be uphill, we knew that. But we stayed on the phones. We stayed on the doors, we kept talking to folks. And unfortunately, you know, we came up short tonight," Hansen told Denver7.
Hansen said he is excited to continue his work in the state legislature.
7:26 p.m. | BREAKING DOWN THE INITIAL RESULTS |
Denver7 crews check in on the campaigns as the first numbers drop, and former candidate Kwame Spearman joins Denver7 Chief Investigator Tony Kovaleski in-studio to discuss the race.
7:05 p.m.| UPDATE | As of the first drop of ballots, Mike Johnston currently leads the race with 24.52% of the vote. Kelly Brough follows behind with 23.07%. Lisa Calderón is in third with 14.41%, and Any Rougeot is in fourth place with 13.47%.
7 p.m. | POLLS CLOSED | The polls have closed in Denver. Election results will soon begin to roll in. To view the results, click here.
6 p.m. | VOTER TURNOUT | Denver clerk and recorder Paul Lopez discusses "low" voter turnout and says of the city: "We can do better."
