Overnight, educator River Gassen overtook her opponent Joe Reagan, a military veteran, in Tuesday’s 5th Congressional District Democratic primary election.

Unofficial returns from the Secretary of State’s Office on Wednesday showed Gassen leading Reagan by 482 votes. Gassen had 20,717 votes, or 50.6%, to Reagan’s 20,235, or 49.4%. Reagan had maintained a narrow lead throughout much of the evening after results were first posted about 7:25 p.m. Tuesday.

Neither Gassen nor Reagan’s campaign immediately responded Wednesday to calls and emails from The Gazette seeking comment.

Gassen told Gazette news partner KOAA late Tuesday night she didn’t expect the Democratic primary results to be as close as they are but they were “a true result of democracy.”

Reagan told KOAA he expected results to be close. The primary election, he told the news station, is “about bringing the message to the voters of El Paso County about winning the middle.”

The El Paso County Clerk and Recorder’s Office received 954 ballots with missing signatures, signature discrepancies or instances where ID was required but not provided that must first be cured before they can be counted, clerk’s data shared with The Gazette show. Of those, 140 are Democrat ballots and 516 are from unaffiliated voters.

In primary elections, unaffiliated voters can vote on either a Republican or Democratic ballot. Unaffiliated voters make up 50.6% of active, registered voters in El Paso County, according to data from the Clerk and Recorder’s website as of Monday.

Ballots must be cured by July 3, the same day the clerk’s office must receive ballots from military and overseas voters.

Gassen and Reagan are both first-time candidates. They are running in the race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican, to represent the heavily right-leaning district that covers most of El Paso County and includes Colorado Springs.

Lamborn, who has represented the district since 2006, announced in January he would not seek a 10th term. Colorado’s 5th Congressional District is the only Colorado district that has never elected a Democrat.

If voting margins tighten enough in the coming weeks as cured, military and overseas ballots are counted, it could trigger an automatic recount between Gassen and Reagan. According to state law, the recount kicks in when a margin of victory in an election is less than or equal to 0.5% of the winner’s vote.

As unofficial results stood Wednesday, Reagan would have to be within about 103 votes of Gassen’s total to trigger an automatic recount. He lags by 482 votes.

In November, the winner of the Democratic primary will face off against Jeff Crank, a former talk radio host and political operative who defeated his opponent, Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams, in the Republican primary Tuesday night.

Gassen has a background in academia, biomedicine and physics. She is an educator at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in topics including astronomy and solar sciences.

She ran her campaign on promises to fight for equality, environmental responsibility, enhanced education and access to health care, among others.

Gassen previously said she would seek more appropriations to support Space Command, based in Colorado Springs, and “increased exploration and research of Space Command.”

El Paso County’s roughly 94,000 veterans deserve to receive health care without being subjected to long waiting periods, she previously said.

The county’s five military installations need development of new innovation and technology, Gassen has said. Investments in research and technology are necessary to increase military readiness and minimize the need for combat, she has said.

Reagan is a former Army officer with experience in health care, technology, national security and nonprofit executive work.