ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — More than 150,000 Coloradans have already turned in their mail-in ballot however over 60,000 residents in Adams County have yet to receive them.
“We got to get our ballots, we have never waited this long for ballots in the past,” Cal, a frustrated Adams County resident, said.
So what’s the hold up?
Initially the Adams County Clerk told residents to “hang tight” implying the ballots were still being processed by the United States Postal Service.
However when the FOX31 Problem Solvers called post office officials, they said they had no ballots left to mail.
Throughout the day on Tuesday, Clerk Stan Martin said it was his “top priority” to fix the situation.
By the close of business Tuesday the issue was identified-turns out the ballots were never processed when they were dropped off last week by the USPS – instead they were returned to a secure location.
The ballots have been since been located and are now being processed.
Here is the full statement from Adams County:
“You may have heard that some Adams County ballots were delayed in delivery. Those ballots are the #1 priority for this office and as of this afternoon are in the hands of the USPS.
We know there has been some misinformation out there, so we’d like to take a moment to explain what happened.
On Oct. 15, our print vendor delivered Adams County ballots to the General Mail Facility. About 60,000 of those—including Clerk Stan Martin’s—did not make it into the mail stream and were returned to a secure location.
Once we were made aware that some voters weren’t receiving ballots, we worked with our partners at the printer and USPS and located the ballots.
As previously mentioned, those ballots are now in USPS hands to be processed this evening for delivery to voters over the next few days.
Here are the zip codes that were most affected:
80241
80601
80602
80640
80011For a complete list of zip codes affected, click here.
The 61,000 ballots included a variety of political parties. Here’s what that breakdown looks like:
Numbers are approximate.
Democratic: 19,000
Republican: 17,000
Unaffiliated: 24,000
Minor Party: 1,000These ratios are consistent with party affiliation percentages throughout Adams County.”
