Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) has been accused of being overly dramatic with her bombastic claims about Democrats and the LGBTQ community. But as the internet holds its breath, waiting to see whether the MAGA Republican has lost her seat in Congress, the tension is only building.
We may not know the results until December.
Very few votes separate Boebert from her opponent, Democrat Adam Frisch. Days after Election Day, the race is still considered too close to call – and state law requires a recount in any election where the second-place candidate is within 0.5% of the votes cast for the first-place candidate, which could be triggered in this case.
Ballots can still arrive from overseas and be counted until Nov. 16. Plus ballots that need verification will need to be counted. So until then, with such a slim margin between the candidates, the race won’t be called. Those ballots could make a big difference in the outcome.
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Depending on how the recount process plays out, that could mean weeks’ worth of delays before the winner is officially announced. On top of that, due to state law requiring vote verification, a recount can’t be ordered until November 30 at the earliest. An automatic recount doesn’t happen unless the margin is within 0.5% of the votes the leading candidate received – around 800 votes at the current count. At the time of publication, Boebert holds a lead of about 1,000 votes.
But the Colorado secretary of state could order a recount until December 5. The candidates can request a recount at their own expense until December 6.
A mandatory recount would have to be finished by December 13. A requested recount would have until December 15.
Neither candidate has suggested they will request a recount yet, but Frisch has said he would accept the election results. Boebert has not.
Since she was elected in 2020, Boebert has earned her place as one of the most anti-LGBTQ members of Congress.
She led a press conference outside the Capitol when Congress was voting on the Equality Act, where she went on an unhinged rant full of fake claims about transgender pre-teens and told reporters she is raising her sons “to be men” and she is “proud of that.”
“The so-called Equality Act, which we all know is the Democrats using a play on words,” Boebert said during a media appearance this year. “There is nothing about equality in that act. If anything, it’s the supremacy for gays, lesbians, and transves-hikes.”
She also took a brave stance against Spongebob Squarepants being gay. The cartoon character has not come out.
Boebert made fun of Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Rachel Levine, tweeting a photo of the highly accomplished transgender woman with the words, “Welcome to woke medicine, America.”
Last year she mocked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, after they adopted twin babies, saying that the gay Cabinet secretary “was trying to figure out how to chestfeed” his children.
Frisch campaigned as a moderate Democrat and didn’t make LGBTQ issues central to his campaign.
