By BRIAN PORTER | The Rocky Mountain Voice
As polls close on Election Day and votes are tallied, there is a specific process that follows, Secretary of State Jena Griswold indicates.
“Election night results are not final results in Colorado,” Griswold said. “After Election Day, ballots continue to be counted, military and oversees voters return their ballots, signature discrepancies can be fixed, and bipartisan audits are conducted to confirm the results – there is quite a bit of activity that occurs after Election Day across the state.”
Initial results are not reported within the state until polls close across the state. After polls close at 7 p.m., counties begin to upload results to the state’s centralized Election Night Reporting system, Griswold said, and results will be available at GoVoteColorado.gov.
Early in-person ballots and mail ballots received before Election Day will likely be scanned prior to in-person and mail ballots received on Election Day, she said, indicating the quantity of those voting on Election Day is the greatest variable in reporting of unofficial results.
A color-coded map helps detail progress in the reporting process by county. As detailed by Griswold: “Yellow indicates that a county has reported results at least once, and as they continue to tabulate ballots, they will update results periodically throughout the night. Lavender means that a county has stopped tabulating for election night, but does not indicate that all ballots have been tabulated, as they will continue to update results in the following days. Green indicates that all eligible ballots have been tabulated, and dark orange indicates results have been certified as official.”