File photo/The Aspen Times
Election Day is right around the corner and Pitkin County officials are urging area voters to cast their ballots sooner rather than later.
“We encourage people to vote on Monday versus Tuesday,” Janice Vos Caudill, longtime county clerk and recorder, said Sunday, adding that lines should be shorter Monday.
Over the past 15 years she’s served as Pitkin County clerk and recorder, Caudill said the general local trend has been for election officials to receive roughly one-third of the total ballots on Election Day and the Monday before; one-third over the early voting week, and one third between when ballots are mailed out and early voting.
As of the end of the day Oct. 31, Pitkin County had received 2,174 mail-in and 23 in-person ballots for the 2019 off-year election, according to state data.
In 2017, the last off-year election, 3,860 total votes were cast, a 25% voter turnout, and in 2015 nearly 6,000 total votes were cast, a 41% voter turnout, county data show.
“I think it’s a slower year,” Caudill said of the local 2019 off-year election. “What’s on the ballot determines what turnouts are.”
This year, county residents are tasked to decide a number of questions, including which of six candidates will fill the two open seats on the Aspen school board; if a county tobacco tax increase mirroring one passed by city of Aspen voters two years ago should be approved; if the long running Aspen Valley Hospital mill levy should be extended; and Basalt voters will decide on if the town property tax rate should be re-established at 5.957 mills, which it was at last year, or revert to 2.562 mills.
Through 7 p.m. Tuesday, Pitkin County residents will be able to bring their ballots to one of the three 24-hour drop-box locations in front of the Pitkin County Administration building, Snowmass Village Town Hall, and Basalt Town Hall.
The Pitkin County Administration building, 530 E. Main St., also will be open for in-person voting Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Tuesday, Election Day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Eligible electors may register to vote, update their voter registration, drop off their mail ballot and secure a replacement mail ballot at the county administration building Monday and Tuesday.
Caudill said ballots will be harvested throughout the day Monday and Tuesday, and a link to official results will be posted on the Pitkin County Elections website on Tuesday around 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and at the end of the night.
For more information on the local 2019 Coordinated Election, visit pitkinvotes.com.