With just over a week remaining before Colorado's primary election ballots are due, slightly more than 10% of the state's 3.7 million active, registered voters have returned their ballots, election officials said Tuesday.
County clerks had received 399,466 ballots, according to figures released by Secretary of State Jena Griswold.
Ballots started going out to most state voters on June 6 and must be returned by 7 p.m. on June 28.
Democrats are so far returning their ballots at a faster clip than Republicans, who are also slightly lagging participation by unaffiliated voters. That's despite voters in the GOP primary facing more contested races, including statewide primaries for U.S. senator, governor and secretary of state.
Of the ballots received through 11:30 p.m. on Monday, 137,028 were cast by Democrats, 128,898 were cast by Republicans, and 133,484 by unaffiliated voters, most of whom received both major parties’ primary ballots in the mail but can only fill out and return one of them.
In total, voters have cast 170,452 ballots in the Democratic primary and 168,594 in the Republican primary — including ballots cast by registered Democrats and Republicans, respectively, and unaffiliated voters participating in the two parties' primaries.
Early ballot returns as of June 20. Illustration from the Secretary of State's Office.
Unaffiliated voters have so far opted to vote more Republican ballots than Democratic ones, though, with 39,696 filling out the GOP ballots and 33,424 voting in the Democratic primary, according to the preliminary report. Another 60,364 ballots have been received from unaffiliated votes but haven't yet been processed and sorted.
Voters appear to be returning ballots more slowly than they did in the 2020 and 2018 primaries.
At the same point eight days ahead of the 2020 primary election, 662,694 voters had returned ballots, while in 2018 clerks had received 425,377 ballots. 2020 was a presidential election year.
Republican primary voters are choosing GOP nominees to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Gov. Jared Polis and Griswold, who are all running for reelection without primary opposition.
In the U.S. Senate race, Republicans state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Cañon City, and construction company owner Joe O'Dea are facing off. The Republican candidates for governor are former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez and Heidi Ganahl, an at-large member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents. GOP secretary of state candidates are Mesa County Tina Peters, business consultant Mike O'Donnell and former Jefferson County Clerk Pam Anderson.
Jefferson County voters had returned the most ballots, according to Tuesday's report, followed by El Paso, Arapahoe and Douglas counties.
Election officials caution against reading too much into what is a very preliminary report because county clerks process returned ballots on different schedules, with some smaller counties waiting until closer to the election to begin processing and sorting ballots.
Voters can update their registration, review sample ballots and find locations to drop off ballots or vote in person at www.govotecolorado.com.