About two-thirds of Colorado’s active registered voters cast ballots in the midterm elections — more than 2.7 million people.
Among active registered voters, roughly 77% of Democrats, 73% of Republicans and 61% of unaffiliated voters cast ballots. That’s according to figures released this week by the Colorado secretary of state’s office.
Turnout was about one point higher than in the 2022 midterms, when 66% of active registered voters participated. In 2018, about 75% cast a ballot.
Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver, said he’s not surprised by the turnout gap between the two major parties. What stood out to him more was the “mismatch” between successful Democratic candidates and voters’ support for several conservative ballot measures on issues like fentanyl and gender identity.
“You know, kind of sweeping so many races, getting supermajority control in both the House and the Senate, and yet you wouldn't necessarily know it was such a great Democratic night by looking at the initiatives,” Masket said.
Democrats now hold at least two-thirds of the seats in each chamber of the state legislature.
Masket said the campaigns at the top of the ballot were unusually quiet, leaving some questions open about how Gov.-elect Phil Weiser will approach his new job.
“One of the consequences of there not being that much of a gubernatorial campaign is that we don't exactly have a great sense of what the new governor-elect is planning to do with, you know, with the state legislature where his party has supermajority control,” Masket said.
More women voted than men, and about one-fifth of voters were between the ages of 18 and 34. Registered Democrats made up a larger share of voters in younger age groups, while registered Republicans made up a larger share in older groups.
Masket said turnout among young voters was relatively high.
“I think a lot of younger voters have been paying close attention to this,” he said. “Really concerned about the direction of the country and the direction of Washington, D.C., and wanting to show up, to protest and to just — to push for something different.”
