Grand County Voters Report Missing Ballots Ahead of Deadline

Aspen —The mail is late. Not by much, perhaps a day or two, but in the high-altitude politics of the Western Slope, timing is everything. In Grand County, roughly 200 residents reported that their ballots had not arrived by Oct. 21. It is a small number against the county’s total population, but it has local officials calling the delay “unusual,” a word that carries significant weight when you are trying to vote in a system where the deadline is absolute.

The obvious take on this story would be partisan anxiety. And sure, there is that. Democrats are voting at the highest rates so far in this midterm cycle. By Oct. 22, 22% of registered Democrats statewide had returned their ballots, compared to 18% of Republicans and 13% of unaffiliated voters. But the more pressing issue isn’t who is voting; it’s how they are getting their ballots back.

As of Oct. 22, around 661,879 Coloradans had already returned their ballots. That is roughly 16% of all registered voters in the state, according to daily reports filed by the Secretary of State. It is a number that outpaces the last midterm in 2022 by five percentage points at this same stage. For neighbors in the northwest corner, the turnout is even sharper. Twenty-one percent of Grand County registered voters had returned ballots by Oct. 22. Pitkin and Routt counties sat at 18%. Summit was at 17%, Garfield at 16%, Eagle at 14%, and Moffat at 12%.

This surge in mail-in voting creates a logistical bottleneck that the U.S. Postal Service is now trying to smooth over. The agency issued a news release promising “business as usual” in maintaining election security and reliability. Brendan Donahue, the organization’s deputy chief inspector, stated that the Postal Inspection Service is committed to ensuring safe delivery and protecting election officials from threatening mail. He noted that with more than 170 million delivery points nationwide, upholding security is a constant effort.

But for the voter sitting on their porch in Aspen or Steamboat, “business as usual” is a cold comfort if the envelope never arrives.

The Secretary of State’s recommendation is blunt: mail your ballots no later than Monday, Oct. 26. That is the last day you should return your ballot via mail if you want to avoid any risk of it not making the count. It is also the last day eligible Coloradans can register to vote and receive their ballot in their mailbox. If you miss that window, or if your mail is delayed, the rule changes. Any ballots completed after Monday should be submitted in person to a drop box or county clerk’s office.

In-person voting is currently a tiny sliver of the process, representing fewer than 1% of votes cast statewide as of Oct. 22. This is typical for Colorado, where 92% of all ballots in the 2024 general election were mailed. But as the deadline looms, that percentage will likely spike. Mail-in ballots can be returned in person up until 7 p.m. on Election Day, and individuals can register and cast ballots in person during that same window.

The part everyone skips past is the sheer volume of paper moving through the system right now. The vast majority of ballots cast so far have been mailed, returned either via the postal service or to drop boxes. The delay in Grand County is a microcosm of a state-wide strain. We are seeing a 5 percentage-point increase from turnout 11 days ahead of the last midterm, though it remains 6 percentage points lower than the early turnout 11 days prior to the 2024 presidential election.

Stand there long enough and you realize that democracy in Colorado is a postal service operation. It relies on trucks, sorting facilities, and the assumption that an envelope will arrive in time to be counted. The U.S. Postal Service says it is handling the load. But for those 200 people in Grand County who haven’t seen their ballot yet, the clock is ticking toward a Monday deadline that offers no extensions.

The mail truck pulls into the lot at dawn, its side doors open, sorting machines humming in the back. Somewhere inside that metal box is a ballot for a voter who hasn’t received it yet, waiting to be delivered before the sun hits the peaks.