The race between Katie Stewart, a Durango school board member, and Clark Craig, the mayor of Ignacio, for Colorado’s House of Representatives District 59 remained too close to call Thursday with votes yet to be counted in Montezuma County.
Stewart, a Democrat, had a 3 percentage point lead over Craig, a Republican, in the district, which includes Archuleta, San Juan and La Plata counties, and a good-size chuck of Montezuma County.
The total vote count was 51.4% for Stewart to 48.6% for Craig as of Thursday afternoon, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s website. More specifically, the vote tally was 26,931 for Stewart to 25, 472 for Craig, a difference of 1,459 votes.
As of 3 p.m. Thursday, Montezuma County was reporting a 65% voter turnout, which is below the approximately 80% voter turnout for nearby counties. It was widely believed that several ballots had not yet been counted in Montezuma County.
Neither the county’s election office nor County Clerk and Recorder Kim Percell returned phone calls seeking comment.
In La Plata County, the most populous county, Stewart won 56% of the vote. Meanwhile, Craig won 59% of vote in Archuleta County and was ahead with 57% of the vote in Montezuma County. Stewart took 65.6% of the vote in San Juan County, the least populated of the four.
Depending on how many more votes need to be counted and which way they go, it is possible the election could swing Craig’s way.
Craig said he was holding out hope on Thursday.
He acknowledged closing the voting gap with Stewart will be an uphill battle, but he wasn’t ready to concede. He said he has been trying to get a hold of Montezuma County elections, but hasn’t received a response.
“I don't know that there's enough (votes) to swing it but we're still hopeful,” Craig said. “We had a lot of fun, met a ton of really wonderful people, and whichever way this goes, I wish the best for our state and Southwest Colorado.”
Of the ballots counted in Montezuma County, 3,863 (42.7%) were for Stewart and 5,182 (57.3) were for Craig.
Stewart, a member of the Durango School District 9-R Board of Education, said she was feeling confident about a possible victory Thursday. She said her team was still waiting to hear back from Montezuma and Archuleta counties to see if officials were done counting. If so, it would give the Democratic candidate the victory.
“It's possible there was under voting – meaning people didn't vote in the House District 59 race, but they voted elsewhere,” Stewart said about the Montezuma County votes.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
