DENVER – A new poll by Let Colorado Vote and Keating Research found independent voters make up the majority of active voters in Colorado.
According to Let Colorado Vote, the organization commissioned a poll of about 1,200 active Colorado voters and ,of that number, 600 identified as independents, 300 were Democratic voters and 300 were Republican voters.
“There’s more independents now then there are Democrats and Republicans combined,” Chris Keating, president of Keating Research said during a media presentation of the poll findings. "We already know that independents are the majority of all registered voters, if you include active registered voters, inactive registered voters and those voters who are pre-registered to vote in the next election.”
The poll also found independents represent two-thirds of Colorado’s younger age 18-34 active voters.
“Independents are younger and in this poll, the median age of an independent voter is 42 years old. And that compares to a Democrat — that’s at 49 years old. And a Republican — (their median is) at 54 years old,” Keating said.
Keating said independents are equally moving away from the Democratic Party and Republican Party because they dislike or distrust both parties. They also want both parties to become more moderate. However, Colorado independents are more likely, +9, to believe the Republican Party has become more extreme than the Democratic Party — a figure that jumps to +17 among 2026 voting independents.
In Colorado, independent voters can choose which primary they would like to vote in — a right Kent Thiry, Let Colorado Vote's founder, said may be contributing to more voters becoming independent.
“Yes, it’s very true that once you give independents more rights, more people will choose to become independents because they felt trapped in the party system where they either had to be a part of this ideologically extreme group or not vote,” Thiry said. “Independent voters are damn thoughtful activated citizens. They’re not ambiguous about caring about democracy. This shows that being an independent does not mean you’re one bit less intense than a highly partisan person from the far left or far right."
But Thiry said right now independent voters don’t have a vehicle for expressing their meaningful votes because of how the system works.
