ELECTION 2020 | Sanders splits Colorado delegates with three other Democrats
Bernie Sanders is on track to emerge from Colorado with about 40% of the state’s delegates following his win in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary, according to the Colorado Democratic Party’s analysis of unofficial vote totals.
The Vermont senator was expected to win 27 pledged delegates, with runner-up Joe Biden, the former vice president, taking 17. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is expected to receive 13 delegates, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who won more votes than Warren but withdrew from the race on Wednesday, is expected to receive 10.
Colorado’s Democratic primary has 67 delegates up for grabs, with 44 of those awarded based on candidates’ performances in each of the state’s seven congressional districts and 23 handed out based on the statewide vote. Candidates have to receive at least 15% of the vote in the districts or statewide to qualify for delegates.
Under Democratic National Committee rules, candidates, like Bloomberg, who end their campaigns remain eligible for congressional district delegates but can’t be awarded statewide delegates.
The results are preliminary, the party said, and could change as additional votes are counted.
Vote totals posted by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office through 6 p.m Wednesday showed Sanders leading the field statewide with 36.33% of the vote, followed by Biden at 24.36%, Bloomberg at 19.36% and Warren at 17.6%.
None of the other nine candidates on the ballot – including five who dropped out of the primary before ballots were due – came close to qualifying for delegates. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the only other major candidate still in the race, got 1.07% of the vote.
Four other Democrats whose names appeared on the ballot, including former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, notified the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office that they were formally withdrawing from the race, so their votes weren’t counted and didn’t figure in the delegate math.
On the Republican side, President Donald Trump will leave Colorado with all 34 of the party’s pledged delegates, which are awarded on a winner-take-all basis because he received at least 50% of the vote total statewide, under GOP rules.
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Trump had 92.38% of the vote in a six-candidate field. Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld had 3.5%, and former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh, who withdrew from the race a month ago, had 1.84%.
Roughly 100,000 ballots cast in the Democratic and Republican primaries remain uncounted, according to figures released by election officials, though county clerks have until March 12 to receive mail ballots returned by military and overseas voters.


