Colorado begins mandatory recount with Lauren Boebert leading by 550 votes

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert has declared victory and Democrat Adam Frisch has conceded defeat, but it won’t be official until after the recount.

As expected, the Colorado secretary of state ordered a recount Wednesday of the 3rd Congressional District race, citing the state requirement for a second tally in contests with a vote differential within 0.5%.

With 372,134 votes cast in the midterm election of Nov. 8, Ms. Boebert leads Mr. Frisch by a scant 550 votes, according to state figures.

“The results of the District 3 race reinforce the fact that every vote matters,” said Secretary of State Jena Griswold in a statement. “Colorado voters have made their voices heard, and I am ordering this recount in accordance with Colorado law to confirm the will of the voters.”

The deadline for the recount is Dec. 13. All of the 27 counties that lie completely or partially within the westernmost Colorado district will conduct a “logic and accuracy test” on their tabulation equipment and then begin the recount process.

“The counties will begin recounting all ballots for the U.S. House District 3 race in the same manner they were processed during the election, meaning all counties will rescan ballots using tabulation equipment with the exception of San Juan County, which will manually recount ballots,” said the secretary of state’s office.

The outcome of the race has been closely watched, given the closeness of the fight for House control and Mr. Frisch‘s surprisingly strong showing in the sprawling rural district, a Republican stronghold.

Republicans won 220 House seats in the midterms while Democrats took 213, according to the latest AP tally. A party needs 218 seats to claim the majority in the 435-seat House.

A former Aspen city councilman, Mr. Frisch said in a Nov. 18 video post that he had called his Republican opponent to concede, noting that “the likelihood of this recount changing more than a handful of votes is very small, very, very small.”

Indeed, the chances of the redo flipping the election results are remote, based on past recounts.

A FairVote analysis found that only three statewide recounts changed the results of the initial general election tally from 2000-19, during which time there were 5,778 statewide general elections and 31 recounts.