El Paso County Saturday unofficial election update: officials finish counting early voting and Tuesday ballots

El Paso County election workers wrapped up counting early voting and Election Day ballots Saturday evening, but no official races have been called yet and many remain tight.

Results are not certified yet as military and overseas voters, alongside those who need to cure their ballot, have until Nov. 13. The El Paso County Clerk & Recorder's Office will issue another unofficial result on Thursday. No races were called Saturday night.

Races will not be officially called until the Canvass Board certifies the original vote count on Nov. 27, at which point if a race is close enough to fall into recount territory, one will occur.

Unofficially, Democrat Marc Snyder maintained his lead over Republican Stan VanderWerf in the battle for the state Senate District 12 seat, which covers parts of western El Paso County. Synder received 48.87% of the votes while VanderWerf had 47.5%.

The race for House District 16 remains very close, although Republican Rebecca Keltie had pulled ahead with 50.03% of the vote. Democrat Steph Vigil had 49.97%, for a razor-thin 21-vote margin. The clerk's office did not respond on Saturday whether that race will go to a recount.

While only a handful of votes separated the top two candidates for the Palmer Lake mayor in the days following the election, incumbent Glant Havenar has pulled slightly more ahead, with 51.11% of votes. Challenger Shana Ball received 48.89%, for a difference of only 37 votes.

Monument was still awaiting news as of Friday on whether the ballot measure to change the town charter to allow for a 5% lodging tax would pass. Unofficial final results Saturday showed a lean toward a failure, with the no vote pulling in 52.58% of votes compared to 47.42% for the measure.