Voter turnout low with days to go
Trend signals ‘big problem’ for school-tax amendment
By Joe Hanel Herald staff writer
DENVER – Turnout for Colorado’s first all-mail election is low with less than a week remaining to vote.
Republicans are voting in much higher numbers than Democrats – a troublesome fact for backers of a tax increase for schools.
As of Thursday morning, 622,066 voters had turned in their ballots, less than one in five of the state’s registered voters.
“All the indicators are that this is a more conservative electorate than we’ve seen in some time,” said Eric Sondermann, a Denver political analyst.
Votes cast so far have tended to come from registered Republicans, from more conservative parts of the state and from older voters. Also, men have closed the typical gender gap and are voting almost as much as women this year, Sondermann said.
Colorado voters have to decide whether to raise their income taxes for public schools (Amendment 66) and to impose taxes on the retail sale of marijuana (Proposition AA). Closer to home, voters are deciding on school-board races in Durango, Cortez, Bayfield and Archuleta County, mill levies for fire departments and a fee for plastic bags in the city of Durango.
Amendment 66 supporters are running by far the biggest campaign, a $10 million effort to convince voters to raise their income taxes for the first time since residents claimed the power to approve all tax hikes in 1992.
Republican voters have been much faster to turn in their ballots than Democrats and unaffiliated voters, and two weeks into voting, 40.6 percent of the ballots returned have been from Republicans, compared with 30.9 percent from Democrats.
“If today were Election Day and ballots were being counted today, it would be a big problem for Amendment 66,” Sondermann said.
Yes on 66 spokesman Curtis Hubbard says early turnout is not a big concern, despite Republicans’ traditional rejection of tax increases.
“I don’t think you can view this election through the lens of Republican versus Democrat,” he said. “That said, it doesn’t surprise us that people who are opposed to taxes will be quick to turn in their ballots.”
Under the mail voting law the Legislature passed this spring, Election Day on Tuesday is merely the last day in the three-week period of voting. Every registered voter is supposed to get a ballot in the mail, but people who want to vote in person can do so at a few centralized locations. Traditional neighborhood precincts will not be open this year.
La Plata County Clerk Tiffany Parker helped write and lobby for the mail-ballot law. So far this year, only 14 La Plata voters have showed up to vote in person instead of by mail, she said.
But mail turnout is low, too, with just 22 percent of registered voters casting ballots.
“I anticipated a lot higher turnout due to what we have on our ballot. It’s surprisingly low,” Parker said.
In the last odd-year election, less than a third of registered voters turned out. That year also had a proposed tax increase for education, Proposition 103. It lost by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.
The Yes on 66 campaign is trying to fight that history by waging the type of television and door-to-door campaign typically seen only in presidential races. The campaign has 18 field offices that are sending out volunteer and paid canvassers every day, Hubbard said.
Amendment 66 supporers will need to boost their numbers in Denver and its suburbs this weekend. Denver is the state’s most liberal large county, but only about 11 percent of its registered voters have had their ballots counted, compared with more than 17 percent in the conservative stronghold of El Paso County.
However, Denver has not processed all the ballots it has on hand. Denver County Clerk spokesman Alton Dillard said he expects to see a bump in Denver’s numbers this weekend.
The window to mail back ballots is closing. Ballots must be received at the county clerk’s office by 7 p.m. on Election Day, when the polls close.
Andrew Cole, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office, said there is no hard deadline for dropping ballots in the mail.
“We always just say that if voters have any doubt a ballot will make it back by Election Day to go ahead and drop it off in person,” Cole said in an email.
Hubbard said the Yes on 66 campaign is telling voters they can drop their ballots in the mail as late as Saturday, as long as they are sure they don’t miss the mail carrier.
