The day after: New election updates from El Paso County

As of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Democrat Marc Snyder was ahead of Republican Stan Vanderwerf by 1,668 votes for the closely watched bid for Colorado Senate District 12, which includes areas west of town along with Manitou Springs and Fountain, according to election results from the Colorado Secretary of State's Office.

The tight lead puts Snyder with 25,161 votes, or 50.29%, and Vanderwerf with 23,493 votes, or 46.95%.

If Snyder prevails as the winner, the state Senate would claim a Democrat supermajority.

Libertarian John Michael Angle has captured 2.76% of the votes with 1,381. A total of 50,035 votes have been cast for the race.

The contest between the two popular politicians — Snyder, a former mayor of Manitou Springs, and VanderWerf, a term-limited, outgoing El Paso County Commissioner — was expected to be a close race, and a critical one for state Republicans, with the Senate split 23-12 and Democrats only one seat away from a supermajority.

In another nail-biter, incumbent Democrat state Rep. Stephanie Vigil has 459 more votes for the District 16 seat than Republican challenger Rebecca Keltie. The narrow margin puts Vigil ahead with 50.84% of the vote and Keltie with 49.16%, unofficial updated statistics show.

The closest race in El Paso County is between incumbent Glant E. Havenar, who has pulled ahead of challenger Shana Ball in the bid for Palmer Lake's next mayor with just three votes separating the candidates.

Havenar has received 591 votes in seeking a second term, while Ball has 588, according to updated tallies.

Other close races for El Paso County include the Monument town council seat representing District 2, which, with Kenneth W. Kimple maintaining the lead with a slim 50.02% of the votes over opponent Marco P. Fiorito, who had 48.98%.

Also in Monument, Ballot Issue 2A, a 5% lodging tax proposal, is being defeated, with a margin of 51.26% against and 48.74% in favor of the measure. That's a difference of 124 votes.