DENVER – Registered Democrats in Colorado continue to return their ballots in higher numbers than both registered Republicans and unaffiliated voters, according to the latest return numbers from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.
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 Secretary of State's Office opens the ballots, checks their signatures to validate them, and scans the results. However, the results will not be tallied or released until after the polls close on Nov. 8.
The numbers posted Thursday show 58,309 ballots from registered Democrats were submitted Wednesday, which is nearly 4,000 more than the 54,728 registered Republicans who submitted ballots Wednesday. Democrats now lead Republicans in the number of ballots submitted so far by nearly 29,000.
Unaffiliated voters submitted just more than 40,000 ballots Wednesday, bringing that group’s total to 143,866 ballots submitted so far.
The number of ballots submitted so far by people registered for each political party bucks voter registration numbers.
As of Oct. 3, there were 1,080,438 registered unaffiliated voters in Colorado; 998,845 registered Democrats and 992,944 Republicans registered in the state.
But of the 572,550 ballots submitted so far, 39.3 percent have been from Democrats, 34.2 percent have been from Republicans and 25.1 percent have been from unaffiliated voters.
The 572,550 ballots submitted so far represent 18.3 percent of registered active voters in Colorado. In the last presidential election, in 2012, Colorado had a voter turnout of 71 percent.
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