for a winner to be ….

for a winner to be declared.

Tuesday’s election was made unique by the historic number of absentee ballots that were cast ahead of time, with many voters still fearing exposure to COVID- 19.

The city of Colby issued 334 absentee ballots this year, compared to about 100 in 2016, according to city clerk Connie Gurtner. Of those issued, 308 were returned to city hall. Gurtner said some of those voters ultimately decided to cast a ballot inperson on Tuesday. Abbotsford issued approximately 200 absentee ballots, and almost all of them were returned, according to city administrator Dan Grady. Typically, the number of absentee ballots is much lower than that, he said.