People cast general election ballots at the Adams County Human Services Center on Nov. 5, 2024. (Andrew Fraieli for Colorado Newsline)
Nearly 3.3 million Coloradans cast a ballot in the 2024 election, roughly equaling the number of ballots returned in the presidential election four years ago, according to the latest data released by the secretary of state’s office.
When accounting for growth in Colorado’s population and the number of registered voters, however, this year’s turnout rate is on track to fall short of not just the 2020 election, but every other presidential election held since 2000.
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Data released by state elections officials on Friday showed a total of 3,268,441 ballots returned statewide. With a little over 4 million active voter registrations and another 603,000 Coloradans whose registrations are inactive, that puts the state on track for a turnout rate of about 81% of active voters, or 71% of all registered voters.
That’s Colorado’s lowest turnout rate in a presidential election year since 2000, when less than 67% of active voters cast their ballots in the presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore. It’s also the worst presidential turnout since Colorado switched to a universal vote-by-mail system, widely touted as the nation’s “gold standard” and credited with achieving some of the highest turnout rates of any state in recent U.S. elections.
Unaffiliated voters once again represented Colorado’s largest voting bloc in 2024, with nearly 1.5 million ballots returned. Registered Democrats returned a little over 900,000 ballots, ahead of the 830,881 ballots returned by Republicans.
Colorado’s modest decline in turnout compared to 2020 — when 86.5% of active voters returned a ballot — appears to broadly reflect national trends. While the data is preliminary and ballots are still being processed, the University of Florida’s Election Lab currently estimates that nationwide turnout dipped from 66.4% in 2020 to 62.3% in 2024.
Turnout in Colorado’s June primary election was also down significantly this year, with a little over 1 in 4 active voters returning a ballot — the lowest rate since 2016.
For the second election in a row, daily ballot return updates released by the secretary of state suggests that Colorado voters on average are returning their ballots later than they used to — especially in populous counties in the Denver metro area, where local elections officials have been increasingly vocal about the challenge of processing so many last-minute returns.
Colorado voters were asked to weigh in on a record-tying 14 referred and citizen-initiated measures in 2024, while Denver voters were faced with a total of 11 additional municipal and regional ballot questions.
In 2020, over two-thirds of Coloradans who voted had returned their ballots as of the Friday prior to Election Day. This year, the figure was barely one in two. That repeats a pattern from the 2022 midterm elections, which also featured a dramatic late surge in ballot returns.
Consistent with past trends, the vast majority — nearly 95% — of Colorado voters are choosing to vote in 2024 by returning their ballots through the mail or a drop box, according to the secretary of state’s office.
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