CREEDE — Mineral County clerk Eryn Wintz stressed to the public Tuesday night after turning in unofficial vote counts that the end results could potentially change due to Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) voters and one county transfer ballot that could count if received before cure date.

If a discrepancy is found, there is an opportunity for the voter to come into the election office and “cure” the discrepancy. The election official will contact the voter explaining the problem and asking them to verify their information and verifying that they did in fact cast the ballot. In Colorado a confirmation form accompanying the verification letter must be returned to the county clerk and recorder eight days after Election Day to count.

In a post published on Facebook, Wintz cautioned voters of the possibility of change, “I want to caution voters that these results are UNOFFICIAL as under Colorado Law there are still ballots that could be received and counted in this office because they fall under “special circumstance” and therefore, have extended dates to cure. Understand it is possible that we could receive a few more ballots that will count because they are UOCAVA.”

Wintz continued to state, “One School District Board of Education Two-Year Term seat race is very close. The very few outstanding curable ballots could sway a different result.

Please honor our transparency that this is an unofficial result and we will update as we can. This tight race and big turnout proves the importance of these positions. Thank you to the members that serve. I am extremely proud of my election team, they are all professional, thorough, detail oriented and caring people. If you have questions, I can be reached at my office by phone 719-658-2440 or 

email [email protected].”

According to preliminary, unofficial results that were provided by Mineral County Clerk election reports, the Creede School District will welcome two new board members and two returning board members.

Preliminary, unofficial results are as follows: Casey Adelman won with 361 votes for the four-year term on the school board as well as Kara Brittain, who was re-elected with 295 votes for a four-year term. Kassidy Mankowski came in with a very close 282 votes.

School Board candidate Jen Harbert won the two-year term with 305 votes with re-elected board member David Robinson coming in at 300 votes. Tim Bachicha came in with a very close 297 votes.

Wintz emphasized, “These results are UNOFFICIAL as I still have two UOCAVA voters and one county transfer ballot that could count if received before cure date. Those three ballots could sway the result.

“They will also determine if we are to do a mandatory hand count, which I am happy to do. I will know by Tuesday next week and will provide details.”

The Mineral County Miner will report the final counts when they come available by next Tuesday.