In this blog, I want to discuss the results of the statewide primary election and tie that in to why it is so important that all our registered Republicans need to vote. This is an extremely important election – at the Federal level, State Level and the County level. We should all want to be involved. We have had very good voter turnouts in the General Election in Delta County in the past – 79.34% in 2016 and 88.22% in 2020. But non-presidential election years and primary elections and off-year elections are not so good. BUT they are just as important. The following quote which is over 2,000 years old from the Greek philosopher, Plato, explains why it is important to vote, “If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.” Foolish leaders may still get elected, but if we aren’t involved in the affairs of government we will definitely be ruled by fools. So, let’s look what happened in the 2024 primary election in Delta County then we’ll end with a discussion on what happens when we don’t vote.
In Delta County, there were 7,800 ballots cast, out of 22,706 active voters for a 34.35% voter turnout. State wide – 987,967 ballots were cast out of 3,801,601 for a 25.99% voter turnout. In Delta County, the Republican ballots cast were approximately 4,160 ballots for an approximate 41% voter turnout. While we did better than the statewide average, there were still around 5,800 Republican voters who did not vote. It is critical that we do better if we are going to win elections.
There were 74 rejected ballots in the county for signature issues, either no signature or a non-matching signature. And there were 154 Unaffiliated voters whose ballots were not counted because they turned in both a Republican Primary Ballot and a Democrat Primary Ballot. Unaffiliated voters who vote in both the Democrat and Republican primary elections have both ballots rejected and not counted. According to the Elections officers this is about double of what has happened in the past. Do these voters not understand the clearly written instructions that are in the ballot envelope? Or, do they believe they can get away with voting in both political parties primary? Either way, I believe it is a good example of why Proposition 107 and 108 from 2016, now state statutes - C.R.S. 1-4-101 (2) (b), need to be legally challenged and over-turned in court. Prop 107 established a statewide presidential primary in Colorado and allowed Unaffiliated voters to vote for the Republican or Democrat presidential candidate and established a date in March for the presidential primary. Prop 108 allowed Unaffiliated voters to vote in the statewide primary election, held in June, for either Republican or Democrat candidates.
There are other interesting facts from the primary. There were 75 voters who cast their votes in person at the Delta County Courthouse, the Delta Health Annex or the North Fork Annex in Hotchkiss. This is less than 1% of the ballots cast. While many voter integrity advocates are promoting eliminating mail-in ballots, most voters (over 99%) continue to use the mail-in ballots over in-person voting. Other interesting facts - approximately 37% of Democrats voted in the primary and 28% of Unaffiliated voters voted in the primary. Of the Unaffiliated voters, 28% voted the Democrat ballot and 72% voted the Republican ballot. Does this indicate that most Unaffiliated voters in Delta County lean Republican? It is very possible, but not necessarily so.
Why are so many of our fellow Republicans not voting? Is it apathy, just plain laziness, uncertainty of who to vote for or a belief that their vote won’t matter? We can try to address these various possibilities by 1) contacting voters to encourage the apathetic or lazy voter to vote, 2) provide materials on who the candidates are and recommendations on who to vote for and 3) explain to voters how their vote really matters. Nothing can display this better than the HD58 race in this year’s primary election. The primary for the Republican nomination ended up with Larry Don Suckla receiving 6,489 votes (50.01%) and Mark Roeber receiving 6,486 votes (49.99%) – a difference of THREE votes out of 12,975 votes cast. In Delta County, 1,291 voters voted for Roeber (82.23%), 279 voted for Suckla (17.77%). What surprised me even more, was in the recount in Delta County, I learned that of the 1,570 voters who voted in the HD 58 race, 54 did not vote for either candidate. Was this because they didn’t like either candidate, or they didn’t know enough of either candidate or they just didn’t care? Obviously if 4 of those voters had voted for Mark Roeber, our candidate from Delta County would have won. Every vote matters! Larry Don Suckla will face Kathleen Curry of Gunnison in the November General Election. She received 6,550 votes in the primary.
Another example that Melinda Sanford in the elections office told me about, was the election for Town Trustee in Orchard City this spring. There were 5 candidates for 4 open seats on the Board of Trustees. The winners for the first three seats were clearcut. But the votes for the final seat were tied – 315 votes for each candidate. A recount showed no change. I believe the winner was going to be determined by drawing straws. But Melinda thought one of the candidates bowed out and let the other candidate have the seat. That is two races in our county this year. It is critical that Delta County voters understand that their vote does count and it really matters that they vote!
Here are the other results from the primary election. In the Congressional District 3 (CD3) race, the results were:
Jeff Hurd – 2,264 votes (36,288 votes or 41%).
Ron Hanks – 1,663 (25,016 votes or 28%).
Curtis McCrackin – 1,060 (5,734 votes or 7%).
Stephen Varela – 323 (8,568 votes or 10%).
Lew Webb – 269 (7,029 votes or 8%).
Russ Andrews – 257 (5,264 votes or 6%).
There were 5,836 ballots cast in the Republican primary race for CD3 in Delta County. There were 87,899 ballots cast for the Republican nomination in the entire district. Obviously, Jeff Hurd was the clearcut winner. Democrat candidate Adam Frisch received 51,259 votes District-wide in the Democrat primary; he was unopposed. There will be additional candidates in the General Election. They are: 1) James Wiley (Libertarian Party), 2) Gary Swing (Unity Party), 3) Adam Withrow (Unity Party of Colorado) and 4) Frank Hernandez (Independent).
The 2020 Census indicated there were just under 502,000 registered voters in CD3, 160,000 Rs 32%, 131,000 Ds 26%, 203,000 UAs 40%, 9,000 Minor 2 %. This means there was about a 28% voter turnout in the June 25, 2024 primary, including both the Democrat and Republican primaries.
In the State Board of Education District 3 race, Sherri Wright received 4,147 votes in Delta County and 64,608 in the whole of CD3. She was unopposed in the primary. She will face Democrat Ellen Angeles of Montrose in the General Election.
In the CU Regent At-large race, Eric Rinard received 4,081 votes in Delta County and 373,138 state-wide. He was unopposed in the primary. He will be running against Democrat Elliott Hood, Thomas Reasoner of the Approval Voting Party and T.J. Cole of the Unity Part of Colorado in the General Election.
In the CU Regent for District 3 race, Ray Scott received 3,525 votes in Delta County and 54,534 in the whole of CD3. He was originally opposed by Kris Sposato, but she had to drop out for medical reasons. Scott will face Democrat Robert Bruce Logan of Durango in the General Election.
In the Colorado Legislature Senate District 5 (SD5) race Marc Catlin received 3,245 votes in Delta County and 14,227 in the whole of SD5. He was unopposed in the primary. He will face Democrat Cole Buerger of Glenwood Springs in the General Election. Buerger received 1,190 votes in Delta County and 9,934 in the whole senate district. This is a key race to win for Republicans, as we need to retain this seat to prevent the Democrats in the state legislature from gaining a super-majority. And we need an experienced hand like Catlin representing us in the state legislature.
In the state legislature House District 54 (HD54) race incumbent Representative Matt Soper received 3,492 votes in Delta County and 13,277 in the whole of HD54. He was unopposed in the primary and he is unopposed in the General Election.
In the Judicial District 7 (JD7) race, incumbent District Attorney Seth Ryan received 4,204 votes in Delta County and 11,066 votes in the whole of JD7. He was unopposed in the primary. He is unopposed in the General Election.
In the Delta County Commissioner District 2 race, Craig Fuller received 2,900 votes and Candyce Blair received 2,512 votes. (5,412 total votes.) Craig will be unopposed in the General Election.
In the Delta County Commissioner District 3 race, Wendell Koontz received 4,280 votes. He was unopposed in the primary, but he will be facing Niko Woolf, a registered Unaffiliated candidate. Note that all Delta County registered voters vote for both county commissioner races. The county is broken into three districts and candidates have to live in their district to run, but we all vote for both candidates.
These results indicate some promising results for electing Republicans in the General Election. However, everything will depend on Republicans getting out to vote and getting Unaffiliated voters to vote for Republican candidates.
So, why do people not vote? I’ve been told by voting age people that, “Oh, my vote won’t matter.” And, “Hell, the elections are rigged.” This response became very common after the 2020 election. And finally, “I don’t do politics.” I have shown why every vote DOES matter and counts. While in some elections the vote tallies are not all that close, there are races where they are. Congresswoman Boebert’s race in 2022 was a very close race, that required a recount. The final tally was Boebert 163,839 (50.08%); Frisch 163,293 (49.92%) – a 546-vote difference. That is less than half the number of registered voters in one of Delta County precincts. Earlier in this blog, I discussed the primary race this year in HD58 that had a three-vote difference and the Town of Orchard City Board of Trustees race that ended up in a tie. Our votes do count, unless you don’t vote. As far as the allegations about the elections being rigged, I have covered this issue extensively in the past. My research into the voter integrity issue here in Delta County showed that there is no indication that there has been any organized voter fraud. In fact, the research showed that information presented that supposedly showed fraud was itself fraudulent. It was wrong! Whether it was just erroneous or intentionally fraudulent, I don’t know. But I do know it was not factual. Finally, when people say, “I don’t do politics.” I respond with, “Well, politics are going to do you.” However, I think Plato said it much more eloquently, “If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.” I think we have seen that play out over the past 3½ years.
I want to conclude this discussion with an analogy on what not voting is like. Not voting in our American elections is like observing a burning snag in the forest and thinking, “It’s not my job to report it.” That burning snag will turn into a full-blown forest fire and possibly into a major conflagration. Here in the American West, we all know we need to report fires in the forest. Not voting is like not reporting a fire. Letting a bad candidate get elected, because we did not vote is creating a political conflagration in our country. So, heed Smokey Bear, “Only you can prevent fools in government!” VOTE!
There are other consequences of not voting. Under state statute, C.R.S. 1-3-103 (3) (b), two bonus member positions to the state party central committee are awarded to each county, for each 10,000 voters who voted in the previous gubernatorial election for that party’s gubernatorial candidate. Delta County had two bonus members from 2018 to 2022. Then, in the 2022 General Election, Delta County had only 9,753 voters who voted for the Republican candidate for governor, Heidi Ganahl. So, we lost our two bonus members, reducing our influence in the state party. Not voting also hurts our county party.
I want to touch on the trend of voters increasingly registering as Unaffiliated. This is a hugely concerning trend. Some of it is because when new voters are registered, when they get their driver’s licenses, they are registered as Unaffiliated unless they specifically state they want to register with one of the political parties. If they are registered as Unaffiliated, they have to contact the County Clerk to change that registration. Many people are content to remain as Unaffiliated. Then there are the disgruntled voters who get upset with their party and change to Unaffiliated. The consequences of this are that those voters lose their influence in their party and smaller groups of often radical voters take control of the party. This results in the party becoming more radical or extreme. But most importantly, those voters are losing their influence on what candidates get nominated by that party and what the party policies are. I hope we can convince both of these types of Unaffiliated voters to register with our party.
I hope I have been able to explain why we need to vote. And why we need to convince our families, friends, neighbors and coworkers that it is critically important that we all vote in the upcoming November 5, 2024 election. There are critical concerns in the Federal races, the State races and the County races. In addition, there are ballot initiatives that are also critically important and major concerns with the votes on judge retention. There is a reason for every American voter to want to cast their vote in this upcoming election. I will be working on a couple of blogs covering the candidates, judge retention and the ballot initiatives. I hope to get those out by early October. The ballots will be mailed the week of October 14, 2024. We are getting close to this critically important part of our American republic. We are so fortunate to be able to participate in our governance. Let’s take advantage of that opportunity.
Our next DCRCC monthly meeting is going to be on October 1, 2024 at the Surface Creek Community Church in Austin. The meeting starts at 6:00 pm and we try to finish by 7:30 pm. I am planning to allow discussions on the various candidates. Hope to see you there.
David Bradford
Chairman, Delta County Republican Central Committee
PS - Remember you can donate to the Delta County Republican Central Committee, by going to our website https://www.deltacoloradogop.com Since we won’t have a headquarters this year, donations are critical in helping build up our bank account so we have funds for supporting our candidates in the 2024 election. An individual donation of $20 is a great small donation. You can also donate in person at our monthly meeting. Thank you! db
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