AURORA, Colo. – After several days of counting ballots in Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas counties, former Congressman Mike Coffman leads Omar Montgomery by 273 votes in the Aurora mayoral race, according to the final but unofficial vote tally.
Coffman finished with 26,201 votes (35.83%) to Montgomery’s 25,928 votes (35.46%), according to the unofficial tally. The Arapahoe County clerk said all ballots in the county save for about 1,000 that were awaiting signature cures had been processed as of Thursday evening, but did not say how many of those came from Aurora.
Three other candidates – Ryan Frazier, Marsha Berzins and Renie Roberta Peterson – all received significantly fewer votes that Coffman and Montgomery.
Montgomery has consistently narrowed Coffman's Wednesday morning lead of several thousand votes as more ballots were counted.
But as of Thursday evening, Montgomery has not conceded, nor has Coffman outright claimed victory. But if the margins remain the same or similar as any further ballots are processed, the race would be outside of the recount threshold of 0.5% of the leading candidate's vote total.
“We are going to ensure that every vote gets counted,” Montgomery said Thursday evening. “We owe it to our community.”
Coffman’s campaign said it did not have a statement yet as the race was still close.
Under state law, the counties also have eight days to receive and count overseas and military ballots and the election results will not be certified until later this month.
The races in Ward IV and Ward V were also within a 300-vote margin, with Juan Marcano leading in Ward IV and Alison Coombs leading in Ward V – both over incumbents.
