In Colorado’s 2019 Election, The Usual Suspects Are Returning Ballots Fastest: Older Voters And Republican Voters

As Election Day approaches, ballot return numbers from Colorado's Secretary of State show a couple of unsurprising trends.

In terms of number of ballots returned, voters ages 55 and up and Republican voters are out in front. And El Paso County and Jefferson County voters are out in front, with just over 50,000 and about 46,500 ballots returned respectively. Arapahoe and Denver counties, by comparison, have returned about 29,000 and about 26,000 ballots.

Here's the PDF if you want to paw through the numbers yourself.

In a brief report released Friday, Magellan Strategies wrote that while it's too early to read too far into what data exists so far, it's at least sort of interesting that unaffiliated voters have returned slightly more ballots — by about 4,000 — than Democratic voters.

"While this may be a sign that Democratic voters are simply slower to return their ballots this year, it could also signal an increase in Unaffiliated voter turnout," the report said. "Keep in mind that younger voters (both Unaffiliated and Democratic) are more likely to vote later on in the cycle, whereas older voters are more likely to vote early."