November 02, 2021 01:36 PM UTC

Downward GOP Trend Continues in Ballot Returns

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Kyle Clark of 9News explains:

Colorado Republicans, while struggling in recent elections, typically have a huge early turnout edge as Dems vote late. Not this year. As of last night, Republicans led Democrats in ballots returned by 10,742. Same time in 2019, it was 64,233. In 2017, it was 32,992. #copolitics pic.twitter.com/kj55ARejxj

— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) November 2, 2021

Clark’s Tweet got us thinking about ballot returns in ALL recent elections, so we did some quick research. As you can see from the chart below, Republican ballot returns are at the lowest level they have been in any of the last six election cycles.

Returns in 2021 are down across the board compared to the last off-year election in 2019, but the decrease is much more apparent for registered Republicans (in case you’re wondering, voter turnout was higher in 2019 in large part because of significant expenditures both for and against Proposition CC).

Ballot returns for Republicans also saw the smallest increase of the three major voting categories in 2020. That stagnation appears to be continuing in 2021.

It’s hard to extrapolate much information from an off-year election cycle such as 2021, particularly when there is nothing on the ballot that is generating widespread interest among voters, but we can look at the ballot return trends for some guidance. Those trends definitely aren’t good for Colorado Republicans.