The deadline for Durango voters to cure their ballots is 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, meaning an updated vote total on last week’s City Council election between Dave Woodruff and Harrison Wendt won’t be released until Thursday morning.
Tiffany Lee, La Plata County clerk and recorder, said the Clerk and Recorder’s Office is scheduled to begin counting cured ballots at 9 a.m., which will likely take about an hour. Because of how close the race is between Woodruff and Wendt, she expects a mandatory recount will take place. Woodruff leads Wendt by just six votes out of 4,804 total votes between them.
Lee said a recount, which is mandatory if the difference in votes between the two City Council candidates is 0.5% or less, will be performed as soon as cured ballots are counted on Thursday if the one-half percent threshold isn’t met.
In that case, she said the recount will hopefully be completed by 4 p.m. the same day.
If the cured ballots create a wide enough margin for Woodruff or Wendt, she will dismiss volunteer election judges and the race will be called Thursday morning. But her instincts tell her a recount is in the future.
cburney@durangoherald.com
