The race for the top prosecutor spot in the 18th Judicial District will go to a recount, which will start Dec. 1, according to Democratic candidate Amy Padden’s campaign.

According to an email from Padden’s campaign, Republican candidate John Kellner leads Padden by 1,433 votes. A vote margin equaling 0.5% or less of the apparent winner’s total vote count triggers an automatic recount in Colorado.

Kellner’s margin represents 0.498% of the 287,396 votes counted for him.

The recount has to be completed by Dec. 8 for final results to be certified, according to the email.

The candidates have competed to replace term-limited DA George Brauchler, a Republican. The district covers about a fifth of Colorado’s population with more than 1 million people and has never had a Democratic district attorney.

Counties had to report their final unofficial results to the Secretary of State’s Office by Nov. 13. They had a Nov. 12 deadline to count ballots sent by Election Day but submitted in other counties, cast under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act or that required curing.

Wednesday marked the deadline for counties to finish certifying their election results, a requirement before a recount can take place.

The split between Padden and Kellner remained razor-thin since Election Night.

Padden took an early lead over Kellner as results started to come in after polls closed on Nov. 3, but by the end of the night her edge narrowed to less than 1%. Two days later, he had overtaken Padden by 1,400 votes.

A statement sent by Padden’s campaign points to her strong performance in Arapahoe County, the 18th Judicial District’s most populated with more than 650,000 people that has trended Democratic in the last few election cycles.

Data reported to the Secretary of State’s Office shows she won the county by about 15 points.

Of the 573,359 votes cast for the race, 335,082 came from Arapahoe County.

“We have overcome all odds to have been in the lead for the 46 hours of returns and to currently be within fractions of a percentage point of winning this historically Republican seat, and we are committed to ensuring that every vote is accurately counted in the recount,” Padden said in the statement.

The statement also said 3,754 ballots in Arapahoe County went uncured, meaning they cannot be counted. Curing allows voters to correct missing signatures or those that don’t match their signatures on file, or to provide missing copies of IDs for first-time voters.

However, according to data reported by Nov. 13, Kellner won Douglas, Lincoln and Elbert counties by 19 points, 55 points and 66 points.

Election officials in two of the 18th District’s four counties provided The Denver Gazette with numbers of ballots they counted that were cast by Election Day but received between then and the Nov. 12 deadline.

Douglas County counted 606 cured ballots and 1,154 ballots between those cast in other counties and cast by absentee voters from overseas.

Lincoln County counted 13 new ballots for Kellner, two for Padden and six that did not contain votes for the district attorney race.

An election official told The Denver Gazette those numbers included 10 ballots received by Election Day but held back from counting until after Nov. 3 to preserve anonymity of ballots received later.

A spokesman for Arapahoe County’s clerk and recorder said the county counted 32,485 ballots between Election Night and the deadline. However, he said he did not have separate numbers for ballots actually received after Nov. 3.

Data provided by Elbert County shows it counted 373 votes in the district attorney race between Nov. 8 and Nov. 13.

That number includes ballots held back for counting until after Election Day for anonymity purposes.