Unaffiliated voters have no excuses.
Yet, undoubtedly, there will be unaffiliated voters who turn in both the Democratic and Republican ballots for the June 26 primary.
"Probably, based on the phone calls, it's going to be some geriatrics, the over-85 age group," said Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Merlin Klotz. "People tend to gloss over and jump to their own expectations sometimes instead of actually reading the instructions."
For the first time in Colorado, unaffiliated voters will be able to participate in the Democratic OR Republican primaries. Or NOT and.
"The only people that we're expecting may get it wrong are the people who haven't paid attention to the news," said Jefferson County Technology and Elections Director Gary VandeStouwe. "We are very specific about making sure that one ballot comes back and only one ballot comes back."
The 1.2 million active unaffiliated voters in the state are receiving ballots for both the Republican and Democratic primaries in their counties. When you pull out the ballots, there are instructions included, but each county writes the instructions differently.
Douglas County references returning one ballot twice. Once in the instructions and once on the secrecy sleeve. Larimer and Denver counties mention it three times. Adams County tops them with four references.
"We mentioned one ballot and the consequences five times," VandeStouwe said.
Arapahoe County makes it clear seven times in the instructions.
"We have absolutely no idea how many ballots we're going to get back from the unaffiliated voters," VandeStouwe said. "We're very concerned about getting too many ballots back."
Once again, unaffiliated voters, you will get a Republican ballot and Democratic ballot sent to you. Fill out ONLY ONE. You cannot fill both out or your vote won't count. You can't vote for the Republican gubernatorial candidates and the Democratic Attorney General candidates because your vote won't count. You can only vote EITHER the Republican ballot OR the Democratic ballot. PERIOD.
EXCLAMATION POINT!
