June 30, 2026 12:00 PM UTC

Latest Ballot Return Numbers: Younger Voters Pick Up Slightly

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado Secretary of State’s office has updated its ballot return numbers as of 9:00 am. We are approaching 1 million total votes in the Primary Election, with younger voters increasing turnout numbers since last week. Here are the highlights:

Democrats continue to vote in higher numbers than Republicans, which makes sense given that most of the action this cycle is on the Democratic side. Only 7,854 people have voted in person thus far. Overall, women are casting more ballots than men (506,420 to 436,004).

On a county basis, Jefferson (112,968) leads the way in turnout, followed by El Paso (112,728), Denver (101,633), Arapahoe (90,028), and Douglas (71,070) counties.

Unaffiliated voters are casting ballots in the Democratic Primary by a better than 2-to-1 margin now — an increase from trends we saw last week. Jefferson County has the highest number of Unaffiliated voters casting ballots in the Democratic Primary (30,058), followed by Denver (18,621), Larimer (16,517), Douglas (15,542), and Arapahoe (14,902) counties.

Younger voters are finally turning in their ballots in higher numbers than in the 2024 Primary Election…but not by much. Turnout for 18-34 year old voters was just 8% in June 2024.

Turnout for younger voters could play a significant role in several races, particularly in CO-01 and CO-08; Democrats Melat Kiros and Manny Rutinel, respectively, have prioritized targeting the youth vote but need those folks to actually, you know, vote.

Voters older than 65 currently account for more than 50% of all ballots returned.