DENVER — U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert held her lead over challenger Adam Frisch into the fourth day of ballot counting in the 2022 midterm elections, with an ever-shrinking number of ballots yet to be counted.
The congresswoman took the lead in the race Thursday afternoon and gained momentum since then. As of 8 a.m. Mountain time Friday, she was ahead by 1,122 votes, representing just a fraction of a percent margin between the two candidates, according to the secretary of state’s office.
The race is not yet over, out-of-state and overseas ballots can still be counted so long as they arrive by next Wednesday, and ballots requiring additional verification can be fixed until then as well. And if the race ends with a slim-enough margin it will trigger an automatic recount, which would last into December.
Frisch’s team had hoped that thousands of ballots remaining in Pueblo County would break in his favor but as elections officials there reported new ballot counts throughout Thursday, the congresswoman’s lead grew instead. Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert Ortiz confirmed to The Denver Post that the results of remaining ballots won’t be published until late next week, likely Thursday.
Ortiz said he didn’t want to speculate as to how many ballots remained. Up to 450 will still be counted in the days to come in Garfield County, Clerk Jean Alberico confirmed Thursday. Other counties across the district will also likely have more ballots to add by late next week but whether they’ll be enough to change the outcome remains unclear.
Currently Boebert’s lead sits above the automatic recount threshold of approximately 810 votes, a number that’s based on turnout.
As of Friday morning neither candidate had yet declared victory or conceded. Frisch said in a release he remains confident and that he’ll accept the result of the election however it ends.
“The closeness of this race is a testament to the fact that the people of Western and Southern Colorado are growing tired of the entertainment industry that Boebert is a part of and want a representative who will fight for bipartisan solutions to the issues facing their families, their businesses, and communities,” Frisch said.
Boebert only offered a single-word tweet after taking the lead Thursday:
“Winning!” she said.
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