The Colorado Secretary of State has released the first glimpse of early voting turnout from a combination of mail-in balloting and early voting centers. Republicans have an early partisan lead of just over 10,000 votes, 81,545 to 71,325. A total of 195,283 votes have been cast in the eight days since ballots were mailed and the three days early voting has been available.
Below are the percentages of turnout so far by party for both “active” voters and total overall registration. Key battleground and “run-up” counties are also listed by which party is doing better at turnout so far, and the full results can be seen in the full PDF below. The battleground counties–Jefferson and Larimer–will help determine not only the U.S. Senate battle between Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet and Ken Buck, but also play key roles in the elections for Colorado’s 4th (Larimer) and 7th Congressional Districts (Jefferson).
In “run-up” counties, where one or the other party enjoys a traditional advantage (such as Democrats in Boulder and Denver and Republicans in Douglas and El Paso), get-out-the-vote and turnout efforts will be critical in “running up” the overall votes for the parties’ respective candidates. In all 11 counties listed, significant numbers of unaffiliateds will also play a role, but there is little to be gleaned from which way they lean as to how much they will help either party just yet.
The next set of numbers available from the Colorado Secretary of State will be released on Monday, October 25.
(All voter registration/status as of 10/01/10, voter returns current as of 10/20/10 at 3:00pm MDT)
Dem “active”–8.9% (71325/799981)
Dem registered–6.6% (71325/1073165)
Repub “active”–9.5% (81545/862575)
Repub registered–7.6% (81545/1079411)
UAF “active”–5.4% (41068/757935)
UAF registered–3.7% (41068/1105522)
Adams–Dems; Arapahoe–GOP; Boulder–Dems; Denver–Dems; Douglas–GOP; El Paso–GOP; Jefferson–GOP; Larimer–GOP; Mesa–GOP; Pueblo–Dems; Weld–GOP