As officials at the Grand County clerk and recorder’s office continue to count ballots, several races remain too close to call across the county, including the races for Granby board of trustees and Grand County clerk and recorder. Among the ballots that remain uncounted are 124 rejected ballots, which voters have a chance to be “cured” and counted once the issues with the ballot are resolved.

Voters with rejected ballots have until 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16, to resend, or “cure” their ballots. Anyone who has cast a vote can check their ballot’s status online at Colorado.BallotTrax.net/voter. Grand County clerk and recorder Sara Rosene said ballots are rejected when the voter does not sign the ballot envelope or election officials determine their signature does not match any of the ones on their file.

The county sends a form through the mail to every voter who had a rejected ballot, and if the voter has an email address or phone number on their file, the clerk’s office will notify them through those channels as well, Rosene said. Even BallotTrax sends voters a notification of their ballot being rejected if the voter has signed up for that service.

To cure a ballot, a voter can fill out a form stating they did submit the rejected ballot and return it with a copy of a valid form of ID. The form comes through the mail and through email if possible. Voters can return the form through mail, in-person by taking it to the clerk’s office or online. Colorado has a TXT2Cure system as well to let people sign the form and submit ID online as well. Rosene said the curing process for voters seems straightforward, at least to her.

“In my opinion, it’s pretty easy,” Rosene said. “But it can be confusing to people because they’re surprised that it doesn’t match — it’s just not something they expect.”

TXT2Cure can be used by voters to resolve issues related to ballot signatures or if the voter was a first-time voter and failed to enclose a copy of an acceptable form of ID as they were required.

Voters who want to use TXT2Cure need to provide their voter ID number, which can be found at GoVoteColorado.gov. Once a voter has their ID number, they can text the word “COLORADO” to 28683, click on the link they receive in the text reply and follow the prompted steps to cure their ballot, which may include sending a photo on an acceptable form of ID.

Rosene said the 124 rejected ballots in this year’s election is more than other years, but is proportional to this year’s turnout. The 8,160 votes received in this year’s election is an increase from the last midterm election in 2018, which drew 7,908 Grand County voters.