Boebert's razor-thin lead over Frisch in Colorado likely headed to recount

After nine days of counting votes and over 95% of the ballots tallied, incumbent GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert continues to hold a narrow lead over her Democratic challenger Adam Frisch in a race to decide who will represent Colorado's Third District in Congress.

As of Thursday afternoon, Boebert was ahead of Frisch by a margin of 0.16%, or 543 votes. State law calls for an automatic recount if the final margin in a race is less than a percentage point, which would need to be completed by Dec. 13, the New York Times reported.

The drawn-out counting of votes has been a result of waiting for mail ballots from members of the U.S. military living overseas to be received. The deadline for the receipt of those ballots was Wednesday. Voters were also given until Wednesday to "cure" ballots that were initially rejected for reasons such as that they contained mismatching signatures.

Officials in the state expect that the final tally could be announced on Friday. If necessary, a recount could be ordered before Dec. 5.

Boebert, who has described herself as an "Ultra-MAGA" politician, has already made clear that the tight race will not be altering her use of social media to express herself.

Throughout the campaign, Frisch used Boebert's more outrageous statements against her, calling her a part of an "anger-tainment" industry that was more interested in attention than in solving problems for the people of Colorado.

But Frisch also was able to appeal to voters in the conservative district by distancing himself from outgoing Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, vowing to join the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus if elected.

Frisch also appealed to voters to be patient on the results.

Yet Boebert's lead will likely have to narrow much further for Frisch to have a shot at winning if the race goes to a recount simply because small numbers of votes are typically overturned in that process.