Boebert’s Lawyer Flags Unusual Patterns. Weld Blanked One in Three Late CD-4 Ballots.

Lauren Boebert’s campaign says it is investigating “very unusual voting patterns” in Colorado’s 4th District and expects the race to go to a recount “one way or another.” The statement came from the campaign’s attorney, former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, as Democrat Eileen Laubacher’s lead sat outside the state’s automatic-recount trigger.

In the Colorado Secretary of State’s unofficial Clarity feed (version 385835), Laubacher has 184,624 votes to Boebert’s 181,555, with Libertarian Douglas Mangeris at 12,506. That is a 3,069-vote gap — about 0.84 points of the two-party total, or 1.66% of the leader’s votes. The Associated Press has estimated more than 97% of the vote is in and has not called the race.

The Weld blank count

The clearest documented anomaly in the district’s reddest big county came from Weld County Clerk and Recorder Carly Koppes. In a Nov. 5 interview with American Muckrakers, Koppes said her office had finished counting CD-4 votes aside from cure ballots and ballots forwarded from other counties. Of the roughly 7,500 CD-4 ballots still coming in, about 2,500 left the congressional race blank — roughly one in three.

An undervote is a ballot that was cast and counted but skipped a race. Those voters still show up in turnout; they simply produce no vote for Boebert, Laubacher, or Mangeris. A typical congressional undervote runs about 2 to 5 percent. Thirty-three percent is an order of magnitude higher. Koppes did not publicly detail why so many late Weld ballots skipped the House line. Gessler, asked by Denver Gazette / Colorado Politics what “unusual voting patterns” he meant, did not immediately reply.

Weld’s official unofficial results page still shows Boebert ahead there, 20,074 to Laubacher’s 13,572, with Mangeris at 1,280 and nine write-ins, for 34,935 total CD-4 votes in the county. The blank batch did not flip Weld. It did shrink the pile Boebert’s side was waiting on.

Recount math that runs against automatic

Colorado orders an automatic recount when the gap is half a percent of the leader’s votes or less, under C.R.S. 1-10.5-101. With Laubacher at 184,624, that line is about 923 votes. The gap would have to shrink by about 2,146 votes before the counties canvass to trigger it automatically. A recount happens only after canvass boards certify. Outside that threshold, either side can still request and pay for a recount within 22 days of the election.

Gessler said the campaign is “fighting for every vote,” that a “significant number of votes remain outstanding,” and that returns since election night had been “trending in Congresswoman Boebert’s direction, consistently lowering the margin under one percentage point.” He added: “Every legal vote must be counted accurately, fully, and transparently.”

A Boebert fundraising email Thursday said the race goes into an automatic recount “if the margin is 0.5% or lower.” Under Colorado law that 0.5% is measured against the leader’s vote total, not against total ballots or a raw percentage-point gap. With today’s numbers, automatic still means roughly 923 or fewer — not 0.5 points of the full contest.

How the gap moved

Laubacher led by more than 7,000 on election night. The unofficial lead fell to about 5,073 by Wednesday afternoon, 3,405 by Wednesday evening, and 2,513 by Thursday morning as later Republican-leaning batches posted. Friday’s state feed put it back at 3,069. One earlier swing that set the table — Douglas County’s large leftward move from 2024 — was the focus of unga.news’s Nov. 5 report; this update is about what the campaign is now investigating and the Weld undervote officials have not explained in public detail.

Cure and military/overseas ballots still have Colorado’s eight-day post-election window, through Nov. 11 under the usual rule, with counties processing those ballots around Nov. 13 before canvass and any recount.

What to watch: whether Gessler names the patterns under review; any further county batches that change the 3,069 gap; the Nov. 11 cure and military deadline; county canvass; and whether Boebert pays for a recount if the automatic line stays out of reach.