Douglas County Election 2026 Notebook: 102,482 Ballots Back and Republicans Creep Past 32 Percent, the DOJ Said It Was Coming to Douglas County and Then Said That Was a Mistake, and the Lockheed Vote Still Has No Record

Five days until the polls close, and the last Notebook before they do. The story of the week is the one we have been tracking since the first count: who is voting early in Douglas County, and whether the Republican share that opened at 30.9 percent would stay under 32, a line it never came near at this point in 2024 or 2022. On Thursday's release it crossed to 32.2. The rest of the week was a federal agency announcing itself to Douglas County and then apologizing, a county board that has not produced a record of its biggest vote of the fall, and a Castle Rock council that will decide an annexation while the rest of the town is watching returns. Here is what moved, with a link to our page on each. Last week's Notebook is here.

Turnout: the share crossed 32, and the gap is still half of 2024's

Through Wednesday, Oct. 28, the state's count had 102,482 Douglas County ballots returned: 23,144 from Democrats, 32,965 from Republicans, 45,303 from unaffiliated voters and 1,070 from minor parties. Six days out in 2024 the county had returned 133,454, so this electorate is running at about 77 percent of the presidential year's pace and about a third ahead of 2022's 76,950 at the same point. Statewide, 1,227,635 ballots were in.

The composition is what we have been watching. Republicans were 35.6 percent of the county's returns at this point in 2024 and 37.7 percent in 2022. This year they opened at 30.9 and have climbed on almost every release since:

Two readings of that line are both true. The share is rising, which is the normal late pattern as Republican voters who hold ballots longer send them in, and the county's own dashboard, which refreshes every few hours, had it at 32.4 on Thursday morning. And it is still three and a half points under 2024 and five and a half under 2022 with five days left. In raw terms the Republican lead among returned ballots is 9,821, against 20,147 at this point in 2024 and 11,401 in 2022. Democrats are at 22.6 percent, down from the 24.3 they opened at, and unaffiliated voters are 44.2, the largest bloc by a wide margin, which is why none of this is a vote count.

One geographic note from the county dashboard: Parker passed Highlands Ranch on Thursday as the mailing address with the most ballots returned, 26,093 to 25,992, with Castle Rock at 22,771. The turnout tracker carries every release and the day-by-day table; the final weekday release before the election comes Monday.

The DOJ's letter to Douglas County, and the one that followed it

On Oct. 21 the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division sent letters to two Colorado counties, Adams and Douglas, saying it would send election monitors on Nov. 3 to check compliance with federal voting rights statutes, per Marianne Goodland at Colorado Politics, who identified the author as Jake Bachand, a trial attorney in the division. The Adams County letter was the one that made news, because the 8th Congressional District runs through it. The Douglas County letter was the surprise.

It did not last a day. Marshall Zelinger at 9NEWS reported Thursday evening, Oct. 22, that when the Secretary of State's office wrote back to lay out what the state would require of federal observers, the department replied that the Douglas County notice was "made in error, and we apologize," and that it planned to monitor only in Adams County. Colorado changed its election rules on Oct. 9 to require every observer, including federal ones who had been exempt, to apply to the Secretary of State for access.

The notification to Douglas County that we are going there to monitor was made in error.

The Adams County half of the story ended Thursday, Oct. 29, when the Capitol News Alliance reported that the department had declined Secretary of State Jena Griswold's conditions, which would have required state-appointed escorts, designated observation areas, no contact with voters and no photographs, and said its monitors would stay outside the voting centers and at least 100 feet from the buildings, as state law requires of anyone. Griswold's statement said it is illegal for anyone, "including the DOJ," to intimidate voters outside a center. For Douglas County the practical effect is nothing: no federal monitors, inside or out, at any of the 23 centers. The county's elections page has posted nothing about any of it; its newest item is still the Oct. 19 opening of the first four centers.

The commissioners: a vote with no record, a meeting with no agenda

Last week we reported that the board approved the Lockheed Martin incentive on Oct. 20 on the strength of the Denver Gazette's account, and that no vote count had been published. Nine days later the county's own record still does not exist. In the county's Legistar system, both the Lockheed incentive (matter 4998) and the standalone resolution to waive the county's share of business personal property tax (matter 4855) are still marked "Agenda Ready" with an Oct. 20 agenda date, both history files are empty, and no minutes or video of the meeting have been posted. The Douglas County News-Press, in a story by Haley Lena dated Oct. 22 and updated Tuesday, confirms the approval and quotes Commissioner Kevin Van Winkle calling it "a fiscally conservative decision," and reports that the incentives will show up in the proposed 2027 budget. What nobody has printed is the roll call, and what no record settles is whether the general waiver resolution was voted on at all that day; the News-Press describes agreements with Lockheed, and the resolution was not on the Oct. 20 agenda.

The next chance to see it was supposed to be Tuesday, Oct. 27. That meeting was posted empty, with the note that all items were rescheduled to Nov. 3 at 1:30 p.m., and the 2:30 land-use hearings were continued to the same day. As of Thursday the Nov. 3 agenda had not been published. Two matters already carry the date: a $113,050 contract with Wheeler Lumber for a steel pedestrian bridge at Macanta Regional Park, and the Planning Commission's 2027 hearing schedule. If the board holds the business meeting at 1:30 on Election Day, it will be deciding the fall's deferred items on Election Day afternoon. We will have the agenda when it posts. The commissioner race is the only one of the three seats on this ballot.

One of the continued hearings has a story. DougCo Social reported Oct. 24 that the owners of a 40-acre property at 2485 S. Russellville Road near Franktown are asking for a use by special review (file US2025-010) to hold up to 12 weddings a year with up to 80 guests, Thursday through Saturday from 2 to 10 p.m. The Planning Commission heard it Oct. 19; the health department and state water officials flagged that the well and septic system are permitted for a residence only, and the applicant agreed to bring in restroom trailers and bottled water. The board hears it Nov. 3 at 2:30.

Castle Rock: RidgeView's final vote is election night

Castle Rock's council does not meet until Nov. 3 either, and its Legistar records, all updated Wednesday, show five second readings on that agenda. Three are the RidgeView Town Center package that passed first reading 7-0 on Oct. 20 with no public comment: the annexation ordinance (2026-040, 10.54 acres in the northwest quarter of Section 12), the initial zoning (2026-041), and the development agreement with a vested site plan through Dec. 31, 2036 (2026-042, moved by Bracken and seconded by Davis on first reading). The other two are the third amendment to the 2026 budget (2026-043) and an ordinance repealing the town's sales-tax exemption for cigarettes (2026-044). Council meets at 6, an hour before the polls close, with the mayor's race and two council districts on the ballot outside the room. What RidgeView is, and what the town is agreeing to, from the staff reports, the development agreement and the Town's fiscal analysis, is our development piece this week.

The retail theft ordinance we flagged last week has a cleaner record now. On Oct. 20 a motion to approve it as presented, by Bracken and Hollingshead, failed; a second motion to approve it as amended, by Brooks and Dietz, passed; the second reading is set for Nov. 17, two weeks after the election. And on Oct. 23 the News-Press reported that both Castle Rock's and Parker's councils passed resolutions to keep the towns eligible for Proposition 123 affordable-housing money. The mayor's race and the two council districts are here.

Money: one more report before the election, and it is Monday

We had the date wrong in our own planning, so here it is from the Secretary of State's calendar: the final pre-election report for state candidates, which covers every contested legislative and statewide race on the Douglas County ballot, is due Monday, Nov. 2, and covers Oct. 15 through Oct. 28. The first post-election report is due Dec. 8 and covers Oct. 29 through Dec. 3, so the last five days of spending will not be visible until a month after the result. Major contributions of $1,000 or more have been reportable within 24 hours since Oct. 4. We will refresh the governor, Senate, legislative and commissioner pages Monday night and Tuesday morning from whatever posts.

The complaint files did not move. Darcy Schoening's two Oct. 19 complaints against Victor Marx's campaign are still open with nothing added; the second of them, ED2026-136, carries the note "11/3/2026 INITIAL REVIEW DEADLINE," which means the Elections Division's first decision on it is due on Election Day. Her September complaint is still open three weeks past its cure date. The hearing-officer docket on the $57,647.16 fine still ends at the Oct. 2 initial decision, and Monday is also the date the campaign's certification of its refunds is due. The two Neuschwanger complaints against Phil Weiser's campaign are still open past Oct. 6 with no new document, and the state's case against Vote Tim Dietz Douglas County Treasurer is still stayed with the Oct. 7 order the last entry. The Marx fine page and the treasurer race have the files.

Amendment 87: no appeal we can find

Last Wednesday a Denver district judge kept the graduated income tax on the ballot, and the challenger's lawyer said he would appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court on an expedited basis. As of Thursday we could find no report that an appeal was filed, accepted or decided; neither the Colorado Sun's nor Colorado Politics' coverage of the measure carries one, and ballots have been in hand for four weeks. The only court reference in this week's coverage was Gov. Polis telling 9News that the measure "could" affect the state's Social Security tax break "depending on the courts' interpretation," a step back from an earlier statement, per the Sun's Oct. 28 reader-questions piece. What Amendment 87 means for Douglas County is unchanged; if a ruling lands before Tuesday we will note it there.

Statewide, briefly

John Hickenlooper released his closing ad on Oct. 24, and Colorado Politics reported Tuesday that it caps nearly $2 million in television and digital spending since early October; the same story says state Sen. Mark Baisley of Woodland Park, the Republican nominee, has not aired an ad since the June primary. Victor Marx sat for a Colorado Politics profile published Oct. 24 in which he said, "I don't pay much attention to polls or gossip," and recalled that his primary chances once "stood at 4%." No new statewide poll in the governor's or Senate race was published this week that we could find. Nothing new reached us on the 4th District, where the only movement remains Sabato's Crystal Ball's Oct. 21 shift to leans Republican; the Boebert-Laubacher page stands.

Two local notes

Denver7's Tyler Melito profiled the Castle Rock mayor's race Oct. 21: Amelia Thomas pitching herself as the voice of young families, Stu Butler on his 22 years in town and about a decade on the Downtown Development Authority, and Mayor Pro Tem Laura Cavey's campaign manager declining an on-camera interview, citing her schedule. And the Parker Chamber's council forum, held Oct. 7, still has no recording posted 22 days later; the event page still says one is coming. The Parker council page will link it if it appears.

New on the site this week

The last-minute cheat sheet, every race and name in ballot order with our read on each, built for the ballot on the kitchen counter; the case for Greg Lopez, our one opinion piece of the cycle; eleven more judge profiles, so that every one of the 13 judges on the Douglas County ballot now has a page, starting with Justice William Hood; the openings tracker; and this weekend's drop, which includes the voting centers open on Halloween.

More: every race and measure on your ballot. We do not endorse candidates. Campaigns can send corrections to hello@discoverdougco.com.