The ballots cast to decide the composition of Denver’s next set of leaders, including the first new mayor in 12 years, are barely trickling in.

With only six days to go before April 4, only about 41,000 ballots have been returned so far – 9% of Denver’s roughly 413,000 registered voters.

Democrats are sending in their ballots at a faster clip than Republicans or unaffiliated voters. 

The latest data show about 21,000 Democrats returned their ballots, followed by almost 14,000 unaffiliated voters and about 5,600 Republicans.

Denver has slightly more unaffiliated voters than either party.

This year’s election is consequential for Denver. It’s the first time in 12 years that an incumbent is not sitting in the mayor’s chair, and 16 aspirants are hoping to succeed Michael B. Hancock, who is term limited.

In the June 4, 2019 mayoral run-off election, turnout reached 39.8 percent with 162,744 votes were cast from the 408,070 registered voters, according to Denver’s Election Division records. The turnout rate was 22.5 percent for Denver’s 2015 race when 94,525 voted of the 419,098 registered.

Denver’s latest primary election without an incumbent was in 2011. That year turnout reached 26 percent with 113,367 votes cast from 433,382 registered voters in June in an 10-candidate field, according the Colorado Secretary of State, and put the number of “active voters” at 231,471 in 2011.

Voters can track the status of their ballots here: https://denver.ballottrax.net/voter/.