Now that most of the ballots are cast for Colorado’s primary election Tuesday, the real work for the state’s county clerk offices begins — and could go late Tuesday night.

The Denver Gazette spoke with several county clerk offices to find out what will happen if votes are too close to call by the end of the night.

“There will be a lot of contests that will not be decided,” Tom Skelley, spokesperson at the Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder’s Office, told The Denver Gazette. “It’s entirely possible that a lot of them are either too close to call or there are insufficient results at that point.”

“We receive about 60% of our ballots on the Monday before Election Day and on Election Day itself,” Skelley said of the clerk’s office. “So we’re not going to get a lot of the ballots that we need to process until those ballot security teams return them this evening after 7 p.m.”

This ongoing stream of ballots into the office may create a delay in determining candidates, though it is important to note that the county clerk offices do not project or announce results themselves. Their job is simply to process votes.

“Results are unofficial until they’re certified postelection by the bipartisan canvass board,” Skelley said. “That will be on July 21 in Arapahoe.”

Officials at the county clerk offices work as efficiently as possible, though counting ballots takes time. The final count will be given around 11 p.m. Tuesday, Skelley said.

The first count will be released around 7:15 p.m. and subsequent updates will come every 90 minutes. Arapahoe will issue these updates on its webpage and social media accounts.

“This is the primary; it is likely the numbers will be close,” said Maya Symes of the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office.

The Denver team decides to pause or continue counting around 11 p.m. and is likely to be in the office until midnight, spokesperson Symes said.

She also stressed that no result is final until the board certifies it.

“Counting will continue for the next eight days,” Symes continued.

Douglas County’s process will be much the same, with “reports coming out three times tonight,” Communications Project Manager Laura Skirde said.

“We have to wait until batches are big enough to process,” which may cause delays, said Skirde.

Overseas and military ballots are a part of this delay.

Across the state, the automatic recount requirement is when a candidate’s margin of victory is less than or equal to 0.5%, according to all sources spoken to.

Any candidate can request a revote, though they must pay for it themselves, said Skelley.

Arapahoe, Denver and Douglas County officials all stressed that their jobs are simply to count votes as efficiently as possible.

Click here for a map of voting centers and ballot drop-off locations in the Denver area.