Colorado has a vote by mail system which leads to relatively big turnouts. This years primary turnout was about 31% of registered voters, which is pretty large. So we’ve got a bigger sample of the electorate in Colorado participating in primaries. And something very unusual happened this year because of a new law, Unaffiliated voters were mailed both a Democratic AND a Republican ballot and were allowed to decide which primary they wanted to participate in.
So first let’s look at the voter registration numbers.
Democrats Republicans Unaffiliated
1,164,063 1,136,512 1,470,864
Historically, Colorado has usually had more Republicans registered than Democrats. In the past year the Democratic lead has steadily increased, but the biggest gain has been the Unaffiliateds.
So how did they turn out in the primary?
Democrats Republicans Unaffiliated
467,924 414,217 290,639
So Democrats make up 30% of registered voters and were 39.9% of the electorate. Republicans are 29.5% of registered voters and were 35.3% of the electorate. The thing to remember is, Democrats seldom turnout like Republicans in a midterm election, and even less in primary elections! So it’s obvious that the enthusiasm is with the Democrats and it’s increasing daily.
So what about those unaffiliated voters? Which primary did they want to participate in?
Democratic ballots Republican Ballots
152,328 92,257
This is what I find most startling, Unaffiliated voters chose to participate in the Democratic primary over the Republican by a margin of 62% to 38%! Most polls I’ve seen show an unaffiliated preference for Democrats of around 7%. It’s hard to ignore an actual voting margin of 24%.
So if the large sample from the very middle of the road state of Colorado is any indicator of Nov., we have the enthusiasm, and we have the support of the unaffiliated voters.
There are only 2 candidates on the ballot this year, democracy and fascism. It’s up to us to make sure everyone gets out and votes to save democracy for America.
And a word about the Supreme Court. This Court is already illegitimate because of the Republican fascist theft of a seat. Another seat appointed by an illegitimate president who conspired with a hostile nation to steal an election, CAN NOT STAND! Our Democratic representatives continue to be extremely weak in their language and actions with every attack on democracy from the Republican fascist cult. Our representatives will have to take back that court when they retake control in 2021. Future generations and democracy itself can not suffer because of an illegitimate court. The court must be expanded to 11 justices in 2021!
RESIST, but more importantly, vote like our democracy depended on it.
