Colorado early voting numbers top 1 million; one-third of registered voters have cast ballot

DENVER – A week out from Election Day, more than 1 million Colorado voters have already cast their ballot, and registered Democrats continue to buck the state’s early-voting trends.

Republicans have traditionally showed up in higher numbers during Colorado’s early voting period, but Democrats continue to mail and turn in their ballots in larger numbers so far this year.

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 submitted a ballot 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.

Though Republicans out-voted Democrats in ballots returned Monday, active registered Democrats still hold a voting lead of nearly 28,000 over Republicans and have submitted more than 117,000 ballots than registered unaffiliated voters – the state’s largest registered electorate.

The numbers released by the Secretary of State’s Office Tuesday show more than 1 million ballots have already been returned, amounting to 33 percent of the 3.27 million active registered voters statewide.

In the last presidential election in 2012, Colorado saw a 71 percent voter turnout, though this is the first presidential election in Colorado that has utilized an all mail-in ballot system.

Monday saw the highest number of ballots submitted so far (201,017) since the Secretary of State’s Office started counting them Oct. 24.

Republicans won the day’s tally in ballots submitted Monday, turning in 71,471 ballots, compared to 68,188 returns by Democrats and 58,305 returns by unaffiliated voters.

The Secretary of State’s Office also released new voter registration numbers Tuesday. The Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office released the tally as of Oct. 27 last week.

The latest numbers show unaffiliated voters continue to be the largest electorate in Colorado, with 1,140,909 active registered voters. Democrats are the next highest, with 1,040,948 active registered voters. Republicans make up the third-largest electorate, with 1,031,512 active registered voters.

Between the Oct. 27 rally and the count released Tuesday, an additional 15,615 voters registered as unaffiliated; an additional 13,421 registered as Republicans and 9,533 more people registered as Democrats in Colorado.

About 38.3 percent of active Democrats have now voted, compared to 36 percent of active Republicans and 24.7 percent of unaffiliated voters.