As the final pieces of the red-wave-that-wasn’t 2022 midterms fall into place, one race that curiously remains undecided five days after the election — albeit now anti-climatic — is the race in Colorado’s 3rd District between Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert and her Democrat challenger, Democrat Adam Frisch.

As of Tuesday, as reported by Newsmax, Boebert led Frisch by 1,122 votes with 95 percent of the votes counted, leaving roughly 5,000 votes still to be counted. So what’s the big deal, you ask? So did I — so I went in search of anything even close to a legitimate reason.

According to election officials in the Democrat-controlled Boulder State, the deadline for ballots to be “cured” is 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, which suggested final election results won’t be known until Thursday or Friday.

‘Cured’ Ballots?

According to Ballotpedia, a “cure period” is the time allowed for absentee and mail-in ballots to be verified and counted:

Absentee/mail-in ballots must meet a variety of state requirements to be verified and counted.

All 50 states require voters to provide valid signatures on their absentee/mail-in ballot return documents. In the event of a missing signature or a discrepancy in signature matching, 24 states require officials to notify voters and allow voters to correct signature errors through a process called ballot curing.

Ballot curing is a two-part process that involves notification and correction. States that do not have a ballot curing process do not count ballots with missing or mismatched signatures.

As reported by the Denver Gazette:

Both members of a bipartisan team of election judges must decide that a signature does not match the voter’s previous signatures in the state’s system for a ballot not to be counted and to require curing, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. The ballot envelope is not opened until it is cured, so the election judges do not know how the voter voted.

County clerks are required to notify voters if there is a signature discrepancy with their ballot. Clerks will mail an affidavit asking the voter to confirm they signed their ballot to the address the voter is registered at. They will also reach out via email if there is one on file. County clerks are required notify these voters no later than two days after Election Day, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

To cure a ballot, voters can return the signed affidavit with a photocopy of an acceptable form of ID electronically or in person at their county clerk’s office.

Voters can also cure a ballot via text through the Secretary of State’s TXT2Cure program. To use the program, voters must text the word “COLORADO” to the number 28683 and click the link sent to them. Next, voters enter their Voter ID number, provide their signature on the screen and submit a photo of an acceptable form of ID.

Not to be cynical — which I am, as should be everyone about elections — but the whole “cured” votes routine provides yet another opportunity for cheaters to cheat, and as I’ve suggested multiple times, Democrats don’t want to make it easier to vote; they want to make it easier to cheat.

Boebert tweeted, Monday night:

Waiting this long for election results is going to make firing Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House that much sweeter.

Waiting this long for election results is going to make firing Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House that much sweeter.

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) November 15, 2022

“Firing Pelosi” is now all but a given after Republican victories on Monday night, giving the GOP 217 seats to the Democrats’ 203 in the quest for a 218-seat majority. With 15 remaining races, the party has plenty of opportunities to pick up at least one more seat.

Boebert, a fierce supporter and defender of Donald Trump, was heavily favored to win reelection after redistricting made Colorado’s mostly-rural Third District more Republican.

Then again, the red wave that wasn’t will be hotly debated among Republicans for months. Until the 2024 GOP throwdown really gets ugly, that is, after which the internecine blame-game song will remain the same.

The Bottom Line

Democrats are like spoiled children and the Republican Party has still not learned a fundamental lesson about spoiled kids: The more you give them, the more they want. If you refuse to give it to them, they’ll do their damnedest to take it when you’re not looking.

Moreover, when caught, stern words without consequences fall on deaf ears — whether spoiled children or Democrats.