November 08, 2010 09:35 PM UTC

Kathleen Curry Not Out of HD-61 (But Close)

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• by: Colorado Pols

A quick update on one of several state legislative races still winding down nearly a week later. In House District 61, Democrat Roger Wilson appears to have narrowly won over write-in independent Rep. Kathleen Curry, but there’s a twist–somewhere around 2,000 ballots from this district that were initially counted as undervotes for this race, some of which are quite possibly votes for Curry. The AP updates from the weekend:

On Friday, a district court judge in Denver ordered inspections of more than 2,000 ballots considered “under votes” because voters left boxes for the district race blank.

In some cases, a voter may not have chosen a candidate in that particular race. In other cases, a voter may have written in Curry’s name without marking the box to do so…

“It is possible Curry may have received the greatest number of votes in the HD 61 race,” Madden ruled. “Refusing to count these votes would thwart the clear intention of the electorate, as well as the intent of the election code.”

Here’s the thing: these 2,000 undervotes in the HD-61 race will undoubtedly contain some votes for Curry where the box for “write-in” wasn’t marked–but it’s very unlikely that all 2,000 ballots are votes for Curry as has been erroneously presumed elsewhere. It’s more likely that the lion’s share of these undervotes are simply that, and aren’t going to overcome the deficit for Curry.

We give credit to Curry for mounting a more robust write-in bid than we expected–though it may have been boosted by polling-place shenanigans. But based on what we’ve seen, it’s still a tall order to overcome the difference she’s facing.