DENVER — Colorado lost to Minnesota four years ago.
I mean, yeah, the Colorado Avalanche lost to the Minnesota Wild three times in five games in 2016, but that's not what we're talking about.
In 2016, Minnesota outvoted Colorado.
Minnesota reported 74.72% voter turnout in 2016. Colorado voters came in a close second with 74.39% of registered voters participating.
So far this year, 2,279,059 registered voters have already turned in their ballot, as of 11:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. That accounts for 54.5% of registered voters.
Broken down by party:
- 826,203: Unaffiliated
- 789,595: Democrat
- 624,839: Republican
Among the party itself, this is how the breakdown looks:
- Democrats: 63.9% have voted
- Republicans: 56.1% have voted
- Unaffiliated: 47.5% have voted
"The final two-day window of an election in Colorado, about 35% or as much as 40% of the vote, comes in on those two days," said David Flaherty of Magellan Strategies, a conservative-leaning polling firm in Louisville.
Normally in Colorado elections, a greater percentage of Republican voters have turned in more ballots. Flaherty does not think they're holding onto their ballots because of confusion between candidates.
"I've never polled, in my 15 years of polling in Colorado, seen such a low number of undecided from the president. Literally around zero to one percent. The Senate race, three, four percent undecided. Just as a comparison, four years ago, it was in the mid-teens. So, I don't believe it's indecision about making candidate choices," said Flaherty. "I'm very curious to see a correlation, perhaps, between seniors, especially that are supportive of wearing masks and they're very concerned about COVID, and who they say they voted for."
As of Thursday night, there were 4,184,484 registered voters in Colorado. That includes 424,200 inactive voters, who do not automatically receive a mail-in ballot. Voters become inactive if their ballot gets returned to the county clerk as undeliverable. To become active again, inactive voters need to contact their county clerk.
"Only 6,000 inactive voters have voted in the entire state of Colorado," said Flaherty.
He said normally, it's around nine percent, but this year, it's still not two percent.
Need to turn in your ballot or want to vote in person? Check out the 9NEWS Interactive Voting Map to find a location near you.
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