Ballots returned: June 19, 2018

DENVER, June 19, 2018 -- Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams announced today that so far 425,377 Coloradans have returned ballots for the primary election one week from today.

Of that total, 162,721 ballots were cast by Democrats, 166,529 by Republicans and 96,127 by unaffiliated voters.

This is the first primary election where unaffiliated voters are allowed to automatically participate. Previously, an unaffiliated voter had to declare to be a Republican or a Democrat within 30 days of the primary election in order to cast a ballot. In the last four primaries -- in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016 -- a total of 39,831 unaffiliated voters participated in the primaries. Of that, 24,092 voted the Republican ballot while 15,739 voted the Democratic ballot.

This year, unaffiliated voters who expressed a preference for a Republican or Democratic ballot were sent that party's ballot, but those who did not were sent both ballots with the caveat: Only vote one, if you vote both neither ballot will count. Williams in March launched the UChooseCO campaign to stress to unaffiliated voters to pick a ballot.

The new style of report reflects information about unaffiliated voters. It breaks down ballots by those voters who expressed a preference for the Republican or Democratic ballot. "Pkt" refers to "packets" for unaffiliated voters who got both ballots in the mail, and indicates which ballot they choose. In some cases, the ballots have been received by the clerk but the ballot party has not yet been tallied. That is "pkt-unopened."

Ballot received by age, party and gender (PDF)