October 15, 2020 10:12 AM UTC

Colorado Is Voting In Historic Numbers

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• by: Colorado Pols

It’s unprecedented:

Sec of State Jena Griswold says 300,795 Coloradans have already voted! She says that’s 24 times the number that had cast ballots at this point in 2016. pic.twitter.com/OOInHYLPUC

— Lance Hernandez (@lancehernandez7) October 15, 2020

Much as we have no frame of objective reference with which to compare John Hickenlooper’s game-ending $22 million fundraising haul in the third quarter, there is simply no way to adequately put in perspective the massive and swift rate of return of ballots that just arrived this week in Colorado mail boxes; after all, this is our first experience with voting during a global pandemic. Nevertheless, here’s the breakdown of returned ballots by party affiliation as of yesterday, also showing an historic shift:

In previous Colorado mail ballot elections going back to the first in 2013, the prevalent trend for ballot returns has been Republican voters quickly getting their ballots back to county clerks, with Democrats filling in later and through Election Day. In 2020, this trend is completely reversed, with Democratic ballots flying back to clerks in unprecedented numbers and Republicans a distant third behind unaffiliated voters. It’s been suggested that this may be due to more Republicans choosing in-person voting on Election Day citing President Donald Trump’s baseless conspiracy theorizing about mail ballots. Or, we’re seeing dampened enthusiasm from Republicans in the face of an oncoming Democratic landslide.

Either way, Democrats in Colorado we’ve talked to are in something close to a state of disbelief over what’s happening, and determined to avoid becoming complacent until this election is not just over, but mutually agreed to be over–a point that, the bigger the landslide, the faster we’ll arrive for the good of the whole country.

We can’t predict outcomes everywhere, but we’re looking at an early election night in our state.