Colorado Clerk and Recorder: Same day election results are not possible

COLORADO (KRDO) -- On election night, Republican Representative for House District 3 Lauren Boebert expressed her frustration with an inability to count all the ballots and deliver election results that same night.

"Republicans were voting same day, and we owe it to the voters to be able to count those ballots the same day," Rep. Boebert said. "That should not be the way it is in America. We should be held to a higher standard and be able to deliver results the same day."

Colorado is 1 of 38 states in the United States to allow mail-in and absentee ballots, turned into drop box locations, to be counted before election day. However, Garfield County Clerk and Recorder Jean Alberico says counting all the ballots by the end of election night is simply not possible.

"There's just a huge number that come in very late and it's simply not possible. We get our signature verifiers to verify all the signatures, but we can't," Alberico said. "I'm not going to have these people stay all night opening ballots if they've already worked a 10 hour day."

Alberico said receiving 30-40 percent of all ballots on election day is par for the course for any election in Garfield County. Many of those include mail-in ballots dropped of on election day that then need signature verification.

"In our June primary, after 3:00 on Election Day in June, we had 4,000 ballots dropped off between 3PM and 7PM. So there's just a huge number that come in very late," Alberico.

The majority of Colorado counties had nearly all of their ballots counted and tallied on election night. The Colorado Secretary of States Office has until December 5 to compile and certify election results pending a potential recount in any one race.