In open races where there was no current office holder running, none of the candidates could quite muster the required 50% plus vote to capture the seat. The top two vote getters in those races will face a runoff election in just weeks.
In the race for the newly created position of elected Clerk and Recorder, voters followed form and selected the person who, while not technically an incumbent, was occupying the job as an appointee.
Election Results can be examined in detail at the Denver Election Commission website.
John Hickenlooper led all fields - both in vote totals and percent of vote - regaining office with nearly 88% of votes cast for Mayor. While the number voting in the Clerk's race was not as high,
Stephanie O'Malley easily won the new position with a very high percentage of the vote at 78%. This was a similar percentage that returned Auditor,
Dennis Gallagher to office on Tuesday as well.
The contest for Councilmember At-Large gained the most votes cast in any race. About 89,000 chose two candidates from among three candidates. Incumbent
Doug Linkhart led the field with over 41% of the ballots. Current officeholder
Carol Boigon also retained her seat with almost 32% of the votes, besting challenger Carol Campbell at just over 27%.
Three Council Districts had open seats and each drew multiple candidates. None of these contestants won the seat outright during this polling. Coming the closest was Chris Nevitt for
Council District #7 in south central Denver. He tallied almost 47% of the total leading second place finisher Shelley Watters who gained about 27.5% of the vote which was about 8% higher than the next highest rival in the field of four.
The largest group of candidates jostled in west Denver's
Council District #3 where 7 individuals vied for office. In this race Paul D. Lopez held a wide lead over the rest of the field with about 45% of the vote, far ahead of JoAnn Phillips who registered almost 16% holding on to the second place finish.
Council District #8 had the most evenly divided race. Three of the four candidates in this east Denver district were within less than 10% of each other. Sharon Bailey led the group with about 36.5% of the total. That left Carla Madison and Darrell Watson in a battle for the next spot in a run-off race. Ms. Madison took that place gaining a little over 28% of the tally just ahead of Mr. Watson's almost 27%.
Three other incumbents,
Peggy Lehmann in southeast Denver's Council District #4,
Marcia Johnson in Council District #5 in east Denver and
Judy Montero in north central Denver's Council District # 9, each easily defeated one or two challengers.
Five Council members were unopposed for re-election,
Rick Garcia, Jeanne Faatz, Charlie Brown, Jeanne Robb and Council President Michael Hancock.
In the only other item on the ballot, number of four-year terms that the Denver District Attorney can serve, was easily extended from two to three.