Colorado Pols blog reported that as of late Friday afternoon the Secretary of State has recorded 245,377 votes cast (269,646 for GOP) This equates to a 30% turnout for the Democrats and 32% for the Republicans. Previous highs for the Dems was in 2004 contested Senate race between Salazar & Miles where 237,140). GOP record was also in 2004 when 335,431).
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I think the turnout will eventually top 300,000 Tuesday as more mail in ballots will either be received or turned in Monday and then those who traditionally vote in the polls on Tuesday. Ironically the large amount of Mail-in balloting is a result of the Obama 2008 Campaign that encouraged committed regular voting Dems to become permanent mail in registrants now eclipsing 40% of the 817,000 registered Dems and closing in on similar percentages of the state's GOP. (In fact the lowest percentage of mail in registrants are the state's unaffiliated voters who cannot vote in this primary.)
Analysis thought: This cannot be good for either the Democratic incumbent (Michael Bennet) or the regular party (non-Tea Party backed) Republican candidates where in the recent past turnouts were in the low twenty percents. Secondly, the close turnout numbers demonstrate that at least in Colorado the national narrative that Democrats are less enthusiastic or motivated than the GOP is not substantiated.
With roughly 30% of the Dem electorate not being knowledgeable of the Thursday's New York Times piece it shows that it will not have a big impact on the race except for the undecided's or voters who will go to the polls, my estimate to be just above 50,000. Many politicos in the state think the race is within 4% with the majority thinking that Romanoff will pull the upset as his campaign closed hard in July and already had a strong grass roots organization populated by many Democratic Party local activists.
At the El Paso County Central Committee Meeting yesterday the Bennet supporters were strangely silent and not enthusiastic in the least.