Wheat Ridge Transcript 1117

Page 1

50 CENTS

NOVEMBER 17, 2016

COMING NEXT WEEK:

JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO

A publication of

Get in the spirit of the season with our Hometown Holidays section.

‘People may have stuck with what they knew’ Presidential focus may have distracted voters from knowing their local candidates

COMMUNION:

BY CHRISTY STEADMAN CSTEADMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Church works to ease election divisions P10

WITH HONOR: Maple Grove’s annual vets program P17

ROLLING!: Local launching cycling game

While campaigning in her community before the Nov. 8 election, Kathy Tolman encountered blunt honesty from people who said they simply did not want to talk about elections anymore. “People were overwhelmed,” said Tolman, who is the Jefferson County Democrats’ chair for House District 24, representing Wheat Ridge and Golden. She went door to door to build support for Rep. Ed Perlmutter, who was re-elected to the 7th Congressional District, which encompasses Golden, Wheat Ridge, Arvada, south Westminster, Northglenn, Thornton, Welby and Commerce City. But despite the election exhaustion, turnout locally was higher than the state average, and well exceeded national levels. According to the Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder’s office, the county reported a 76.8 percent of registered voter turnout this election year. That means of the county’s 428,257 registered voters, 3129,118 cast ballots. That percentage was higher than the state average of 72.9, and the national average of 58 percent for registered voters. Incumbents won a good majority of the races, which could be attributed to party affiliation and familiarity with candidates. But, political observers say, a higher focus on the presidential race and an extensive ballot with a variety of issues also could have distracted many voters from thoroughly researching their local candidates, resulting in a default vote for the incumbent. SEE ELECTION, P5

THE BOTTOM LINE PERIODICAL

‘I hate the nature of these partisan races. I respect both Rachel Zenzinger and Laura Woods and pledge to work with whoever wins in the future.’ Arvada Mayor Marc Williams | Page 4 INSIDE

VOICES: PAGE 14 | LIFE: PAGE 16 | CALENDAR: PAGE 20 | SPORTS: PAGE 24

WheatRidgeTranscript.com

VOLUME 33 | ISSUE 21


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