Transcript Wheat Ridge
Jefferson County, Colorado • Volume 29, Issue 21
November 15, 2012
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A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourwheatridgenews.com
Candidates recounting on it Three Jeffco races could be subject to recount By Glenn Wallace
gwallace@ourcoloradonews.com Election Day has passed but the race is still on in three Jefferson County races. Tightest of the races is the one for District 2 county commissioner. With all 262 county precincts reporting, appointed incumbent John Odom leads challenger Casey Tighe by only 133 votes. “It’s exciting. We just needs to count up all the ballots and see who won,” Tighe said.
Odom said he had no comment on the state of the election, only that he trusted in county Clerk and Recorder Pam Anderson and her department to determine the election winner soon. The RTD race for District M, which is entirely within Jeffco, is also likely to trigger a mandatory recount, as Natalie Menten currently leads Matt Cohen by 119 votes. A ballot recount is done whenever the percentage of victory is one-half of 1 percent or less of the winner’s vote total. In the state Senate District 19 race, the vote results fall just outside that range, with Democrat incumbent Evie Hudak beating Republican Lang Sias by 332 votes.
Jahn honored
But with Jeffco’s Clerk and Recorder’s Office still sifting through more than 7,000 provisional ballots that were turned in on Election Day, any three of those races could move in or out of the threshold. “That’s entirely possible,” said Josh Liss, deputy of elections for Jeffco. “But what we’ve seen in recent years is that the provisional ballots seem to reflect what we see on election night.” Liss said the provisional ballots had to be processed, followed by the official certification of the election results. If the numbers of those certified results still triggered the need for a recount, then the county would have until Dec. 13 to do so.
“But we know everyone’s anxious to find out who won. If we can we’d like to get any recount started that last week of November,” Liss said. The optical vote-counting machines used by Jeffco, which Liss described as “simple and reliable,” would be checked for accuracy. Then the recount would begin, which in the case of the Odom and Tighe contest would involve recounting every ballot in the county. The process is expected to take three to four days. Liss said the county’s equipment is rarely wrong the first time around though. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen a recount in Jeffco where the result changes.”
DESERVING TRIBUTE
By Cassie Monroe
cmonroe@ourcoloradonews.com State Sen. Cheri Jahn said running for election and campaigning was her favorite part of joining the legislature in 2001, and it’s still her fave. Jahn explained she loves meeting people, knocking on doors and talking about concerns people have in her district. However, she said once the campaign was over, and she joined the state House of Representatives in 2001, she panicked. Jahn said she looked around at the other state representatives Jahn and did not think she would fit in with them — they were highly educated and seemed so sure of what they were doing. In 2011, Jahn was elected again but this time to her first term in the state senate. On Nov. 9, she was honored as one of the Jefferson County Women to Watch at the West Chamber’s 11th Annual Celebrate Women of Jefferson County Event. Every year the West Chamber recognizes women who have made a positive impact on others throughout their years serving Jeffco. “I’m so humbled to be here with the most incredible women,” Jahn said. “This is like the Oscars.” Jahn was a single mother of three children, who cleaned houses for a living, when she first ran for election. “I learned very, very quickly you need the community to help raise your children,” Jahn said. On her first few days in session as a state representative, Jahn started feeling like running for election might have been a mistake. She said she didn’t know if she could do the job and went to a colleague for help — U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, then a state representative. She told Perlmutter that they might need to start looking for someone to replace her, and that she didn’t know how to do this job. Perlmutter gave her some advice that day that she has carried with her ever since. “You only have to be true to yourself,” Jahn recalled Perlmutter saying. Through her career as an elected official of the U.S. government, she said she has always tried to do what was right. “It is about the support you surround yourself with,” Jahn told the audience.
A photograph of Vietnam Navy veteran David Hoyle (father of Prospect Valley Elementary School teacher Dawn Ramirez), is on a display wall in honor of “Loved Ones who have Served” as a Veterans Day tribute Monday in Wheat Ridge. School children and teachers were encouraged to bring in photographs of family members who served in the military in which their name was written on a star, posted on a wall entitled supporting our veterans. Ramirez is the teacher who coordinates a fundraiser at Prospect Valley that includes a nonperishable food drive. Photo by Andy Carpenean
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