New ballot box installed; 110,000 votes already cast

Estes Park drop boxes closed due to fire evacuations

With just about a week left to vote, 110,000 Larimer County residents already have cast their ballots.

Meanwhile, a new 24-hour drop box was installed in Loveland, and until all evacuations are lifted, the ballot boxes in Estes Park remain closed.

“Please, please, please, vote early,” said Angela Myers, Larimer

County’s elected clerk and recorder.

Myers said she is expecting an overall turnout of about 90%, or 225,000 ballots, by the time the polls close at 7 p.m. on Nov. 3. As of Monday, 110,000 had been cast by county residents.

The county clerk said if more than 20,000 people vote on Election Day, final results won’t be tallied the same day, and the outcomes of some races might not be clear.

Loveland now has four 24-hour drop boxes with the addition of one installed Monday at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, 5250 N. Garfield Ave.

The other boxes are at the Loveland Police and Courts Building, 810 E. 10th St.; Larimer County Loveland Campus, 200 Peridot Ave.; and the Loveland Public Librar y, 300 N. Adams Ave., as well as in other locations countywide.

Two drop-off boxes in Estes Park, which would make 19 across the county, are closed and locked due to evacuations caused by the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires.

Myers stressed that elections staff members retrieved all the ballots that had been cast in Estes Park before the evacuations.

“All the ballots from Estes Park are safely in the hands of our counting facility,” Myers said. “We’ve been up there. At the same time, we locked it down.”

Voters also can choose from several Voter Service and Polling Center locations, including one at the Loveland Police and Cour ts Building and, closer to the election, from drop-of f spots at area grocer y stores.

A complete list of these sites and their hours of operation is available at votelarimer .org.

Monday was the last day that it was safe to mail in ballots and ensure that they are received on time and counted, Myers said.

DID YOU KNOW?

Statewide, 1,617,955 ballots had been cast by Monday, according to the Colorado secretar y of state.

JENNY SPARKS / Loveland Reporter-herald Ryan Wagner, left, and Gike Roberts, both with Delehoy Construction, work to anchor a new ballot drop box to a concrete base Gonday outside the Habitat for Humanity Restore at 5250 N. Garfield Ave. in Loveland. After the box is set and anchored, the heads of the bolts are cut off to make the box more difficult to steal or move.