Wednesday ballot return numbers: Democrats increase lead over Republicans in Colorado submissions

DENVER – Wednesday’s ballot return numbers from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office show registered Democrats again increased their lead in the number of ballots submitted so far statewide.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office updates the number of ballots returned via mail and votes made in-person each day, and breaks down the votes by which party each person who voted is registered for.

Every ballot is categorized by each voter’s registration and does not say how a person voted. Colorado law allowed county clerks to start counting ballots on Oct. 24.

The county clerk’s offices open the ballots, check their signatures to validate them, and scan the results. However, the results will not be tallied or released until after the polls close on Nov. 8.

Wednesday’s numbers show the ballots of an additional 48,839 registered Democrats were submitted Tuesday – nearly 2,000 more than registered Republicans submitted.

That brings the registered Democrats’ lead in ballot submissions to more than 25,000 over Republicans.

An additional 32,944 unaffiliated voter ballots came in to county clerk’s offices Tuesday.

After Tuesday’s numbers were counted, a total of 416,951 ballots have so far been submitted in Colorado, which represents about 13.3 of registered active voters statewide.

In the last presidential election, in 2012, Colorado had a voter turnout of 71 percent. At the same time that year, early and absentee voting showed registered Republicans had a lead over Democrats, according to Colorado polling agency Magellan Strategies.