With 78,937 ballots counted early Wednesday, the Democratic primary race for Boulder County commissioner is still close.
Educator and community engagement consultant Marta Loachamin holds an 806-vote lead over state Rep. Jonathan Singer Jonathan in the contest for the District 2 seat. Votes for Loachamin total 30,820 to Singer's 30,014 with the next updated tally not expected until Wednesday afternoon, according to results posted by the Boulder County Elections Division.
The winner will face Republican James T. Crowder in the General Election in November. Crowder was not opposed in Tuesday's primary.
That race was among the contested races before Longmont voters on Tuesday. Longmont ballots also featured the contest between Democratic and Libertarian candidates for U.S. Senate.
In the Democratic Senate contest, former Gov. John Hickenlooper defeated former state Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff. Hickenlooper netted 525,716 votes to Romanoff's 357,311 statewide, according to election results posted shortly after 3 a.m. by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. In Boulder County, Hickenlooper garnered 35,835 votes to Romanoff's 31,095.
Hickenlooper will now face incumbent Cory Gardner in November.
In the Libertarian Senate race, no votes had been cast in Boulder County for either Gaylon Kent Raymon Anthony Doane. Statewide Doane had the edge 3,477 to 2,094 votes as of 3:03 a.m., according to the Secretary of State's Office.
Unaffiliated voters were mailed both major party ballots but could only vote and return one. As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, more than 1.3 million ballots had been returned in the by-mail primary election, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. That turnout surpassed the 1.16 million votes in the 2018 primary, which saw the highest primary turnout in a decade, according to the Denver Post.
