It’s been a week since ballots for the June 26 primary election were sent out across Colorado and we’re happy to report a bunch of voters have already returned them.
Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams said in a release that as of Monday, 37,661 overly responsible voters have returned their ballots for the primary. This year’s primary is special, since unaffiliated voters are getting a chance to participate for the first time ever.
The data shows 15,982 Republicans, 14,737 Democrats and 6,942 pioneering unaffiliated voters have turned in their ballots. Unaffiliated voters are allowed to vote only in one party primary; Williams’ release said the turnout totals don’t indicate whether an unaffiliated voter picked a Republican or Democratic ballot -- although that information will eventually be available to the public, possibly as soon as tomorrow.
The figures include ballots mailed in, returned in-person and those placed in 24-hours drop boxes.
A breakdown of the returned ballots showed it’s a nearly even split between male and female voters, with 18,867 female voters and 18,628 male voters having returned ballots. At least 166 ballots returned had an unknown gender.
More Democratic women have so far returned their ballots than men, while more men voting in the Republican primary have returned theirs than women.
And congratulations to El Paso County, the most overachieving county in the state, with 7,778 ballots returned as of Monday. Williams released said some ballots have yet to be processed for some smaller counties, which is why they currently have zero or very few ballots listed as returned. More figures will be released Tuesday, which will also include ballots put into 24-hour drop boxes over the weekend.
In the Metro area, Arapahoe County has the most returned ballots, with 6,897. Denver County has 3,616 returned ballots, while nearby Adams County has 1,130, Douglas County has 1,759 and Jefferson County has 3,314.
During the 2016 primary, Colorado had a 21.38 percent voter turnout (644,723 ballots cast out of 3,015,250 active voters).
Need more info as you consider casting your ballot? Check out our primary primer to learn more about who's running in the governor's race.
