This story by Lindsey Toomer appeared on Colorado Newsline on November 17, 2022.
While more than 2.5 million Coloradans voted in the 2022 midterm elections, this year saw a lower rate of voter turnout than in the last midterm election in 2018.
With 66.6% of Colorado’s active voters participating in the election, turnout naturally is less than in the 2020 presidential election, but it also fell short of the 2018 midterms by about 8 percentage points.
In the 2018 election, Colorado actually had a similar number of ballots cast as in the 2022 midterms did — just about 2.5 million — but because the state now has more active voters, the percentage dropped from 2018’s 74.9% voter turnout.
In the 2020 presidential election, 86.5% of active voters in Colorado participated.
According to the secretary of state’s office, about 40% of voters this year were unaffiliated, about 30% were Democrats and about 28% were Republicans.
Mail ballots were the preferred voting method, with more than 95% of Colorado voters casting a mail ballot. Only 4.7% of voters participated in person.
Similarly, Colorado saw fewer voters cast their ballots before Election Day in 2022 than did in 2018.