Tracking election data in Colorado is kind of like approaching a water mirage on a long car trip. Just when you think you've reached that shimmery puddle of water on the highway, it disappears. One minute, The New York Times reports that 1.4 million of the state's registered voters have requested mail-in ballots, and then, within a matter of days the number ups to 1.5 million. It's enough to make a journalist (or anyone else who tracks this stuff) go crazy and start using overblown, flowery metaphors.