Ireland

Can Adam Frisch, former city council person and long-shot candidate for Congress, save us from Kevin McCarthy and GOP madness in the House of Representatives?

About 114 locals in Pitkin County and thousands of others around the state who already voted could make the difference. The locals that count now are those of us who cast votes with technical, “curable” defects, like failing to sign the envelope. It’s possible that we hold the key to control of the House.

Usually, Election Day is the end of the line for Pitkin County voters. We are a blue county that has given Democrats large majorities in state and federal elections, majorities that usually don’t tip the election.

But this year is special because the “cure” process might fix enough ballots to flip the whole thing to Frisch — and even the entire House to the Democrats.

Unlikely? Yes. But the whole Frisch campaign has been a long shot from Day 1, as improbable as Rich Strike winning the Kentucky Derby at 80-1 odds. The professionals put him at 100-1 as recently as a few months ago, and even this columnist put his chances at a mere 25%.

So today, a nice Saturday, was spent with the chair of the Democratic Party, Howie Wallach, chasing ballots — a tedious process of going to the doors of the curable votes and leaving a reminder card with simple instructions for getting the uncured ballots cured. Wallach and other volunteers have been calling, texting and even snail mailing the voters who need to fix their ballots.

The process is simple: You can fix a ballot with a missing signature or mismatched signature on your phone by texting “Colorado” to 2-8683 and following the instructions. Of course, you can also go to the clerk’s office on Main Street and cure your ballot in person until Wednesday at 5 p.m.

Is your ballot one of the hundred-plus in need of a cure? You can check online at pitkinvotes.ballottrax.net/voter/#/login-auth.

Frisch is, as he always has been, a centrist Democrat and diligent campaigner who first won election by dragging orange, reusable shopping bags about town, emblazoned with his name in black. He usually can be counted on to listen to everyone and reach some middle ground, a welcome relief from the tight-black T-shirt contestant: gun-toting, shoot-from-the-hip Lauren Boebert.

You might not agree with him all the time — I haven’t — but you can be pretty sure he won’t stand up at a State of the Union address and scream at the president, nor does he have a record for failure to pay taxes and weird support for insurrectionists invading the Capitol.

Frisch is no Don Quixote; he undertook a challenge to incumbent Boebert with the serious intent of defeating “Congresswoman Guns/Freedom” in our 27-county western district that is properly rated as plus-12 Republican. A plus-12 red district means that under normal circumstances, a Republican can be expected to win by 12%.

Frisch has been to all the counties and probably enough diners to be sick of barbecue anything. Now, his hopes rest with those of us who accidentally forgot to sign our ballots or whose signatures don’t quite match the one on file with the clerk.

Rich Strike shocked the experts at the derby — we could do the same by fixing our ballots and sending Adam to Congress.

Mick Ireland’s vote counted and he hopes yours will also. Mick@sopris.net.