The other day I got some of the turnout data here in HD4 (Northwest Denver). Voting early really was pushed as evidenced by the trickle of voters I saw in the precinct voting location I was watching. For all of HD4 59% (15997) of the 26952 votes were done by mail. Another 19.5% (5268) were early votes. And only 17.8% (4818) were election day cast ballots. That's doesn't totally add up to 100% as another 3.2% of votes (869) were provisional ballots. Some were due to people going to the wrong precinct (Denver keeps changing this around), those who requested a mail in ballot but never received it. I'd witnessed and heard other reports that election judges were all too quick to hand someone a provisional ballot when a few extra minutes of checking could have sorted out the problem. I've seen too many articles in the paper talking about how smooth voting went. Sure, compared to 2006. But, let's not dust off our hands and say mission accomplished. After all, how many who didn't receive their ballot, simply gave up and didn't vote? Yes, those who show up get to decide what kind of democracy we have, but unlike a certain outgoing secretary of state, we should be making the process easier for people, not harder.
Anyway, after receiving that data, I took a look at final results in the most populated counties, since Coffman's office still doesn't have all the data up. I'm sure part of the problem is all the counties haven't certified their data yet. Boulder county's website still lists theirs as not yet final.
Voter turnout by county
county
2008 %
2004 %
Denver
83
79.6
Jefferson
94.5
89.6
Adams
90.6
89.9
Arapahoe
92.6
92.6
El Paso
90.9
89.8
Boulder
92.3
91.6
Larimer
91.5
94.5
Douglas
95.5
96.4
Interesting that Larimer and Douglas had lower turnout this year. And while Denver has improved, we still have a way to go. These numbers don't tell us everything however. So, let's look at voter registration efforts.
county
2008 voters
% change
Denver
312445
2.5
Jefferson
309134
1.5
Adams
177203
13.7
Arapahoe
287363
11.8
El Paso
300401
10
Boulder
186055
5.2
Larimer
181715
14.3
Douglas
159029
20.7
Or at I'm trying to look at voter registration. The last column is increase in active registered voters over 2004. Some of this is going to be population change as new houses are built. And, some is going to be the result of increases interest in the election combined with targeted voter registration efforts. But, Larimer and Douglas county increased their number of active registered voters by a lot, but turnout was down a bit. Weird.
Now, let's take a look at the ballot measures. For reference:
46 - A yes vote takes away affirmative action
47 - Guts the Colorado Labor Peace Act (right to work)
48 - eggmendment
49 - A yes vote bans automatic union due deductions from pay for government employees
54 - Bans political contributions by union members and their family members
Denver
Amendment
YES%
NO%
under vote
46
40
60
24853
47
33
67
19854
48
16
84
10240
49
31
69
18440
54
43
57
33656
JeffCo
Amendment
YES%
NO%
under vote
46
48
45
18107
47
43
52
12092
48
24
72
11338
49
38
56
16883
54
49
44
19410
Adams
Amendment
YES%
NO%
under vote
46
49
51
10032
47
37
63
5319
48
27
73
6054
49
34
66
8001
54
49
51
10376
Arapahoe
Amendment
YES%
NO%
under vote
46
51
49
16326
47
45
55
11394
48
26
74
10689
49
41
59
16037
54
51
49
19251
El Paso
Amendment
YES%
NO%
under vote
46
56
44
17078
47
50.4
49.5
11800
48
38
62
9866
49
45
55
15586
54
56
44
19281
Boulder
Amendment
YES%
NO%
under vote
46
40
60
13346
47
40
60
11952
48
15
85
6934
49
34
66
16088
54
46
54
17591
Larimer
Amendment
YES%
NO%
under vote
46
49
50
11196
47
46
53
8181
48
26
74
5592
49
41
59
11223
54
53
47
14151
Douglas
Amendment
YES%
NO%
under vote
46
59
41
8842
47
57
43
6028
48
32
68
4883
49
50.4
49.5
9462
54
61
39
11036
So, the usual areas voted against or for unions (47, 49, 54) and minorities (46). It's ironic that one of the whitest areas of the state, Douglas county, voted at 59% to get rid of affirmative action. I'm also surprised how well the more moderate counties voted down 47 and 49. But, 46 had almost the highest number of undervotes. That many people skipped it, either not knowing what it was, or not liking the language so skipped it for that reason. As expected, 54 had the highest under votes as it was buried between a number of measures still on the ballot but not to be counted. And the one with the lowest under vote? 48. People knew what it was, and resoundingly said, not no, but hell no!
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