Photo: Colorado Supreme Court Justice Brian Boatright administers the oath of office for Colorados’s 10 presidential electors Dec. 17, 2024, at the Colorado Capitol. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline.)
This story by Lindsey Toomer appeared on Colorado Newsline on December 17, 2024.
Colorado’s 10 presidential electors met at the state Capitol Tuesday to cast their votes for 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who won 54.2% of Colorado’s votes.
Republican President-elect Donald Trump won 43.2% of Colorados’s votes.
This was the first presidential election where Colorado had 10 electoral votes, after the state earned an eighth seat in Congress following the 2020 census.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Secretary of State Jena Griswold, both Democrats, oversaw the meeting of electors, and Colorado Supreme Justice Brian Boatright delivered the oath of office for the 10 electors from around the state.
“This is part of our Constitutional process that you are successfully executing here today to make sure that Colorado’s voice is part of that process that determines the next president of the United States,” Polis said to electors.
Colorado’s presidential electors included Polly Baca of Denver, state Rep. Junie Joseph of Boulder, Cindy Orr of Grand Junction, Jarrod Munger of Fort Morgan, John Mikos of Monument, Kathryn Wallace of Arvada, Gil Reyes of Denver, Anita Lynch of Denver and Katherine Khadija Haynes of Denver.
Griswold said Colorado ranked sixth in the nation for turnout in the 2024 election with 79.5% of Colorado’s registered voters casting a ballot. She said this election was the first time Colorado had more than 4 million active voters, and more than 3.2 million voted.
“The votes cast today are the final votes that will be cast in this year’s election cycle,” Griswold said. “I’m proud that so many Coloradans made their voice heard in this important election.”
Colorado had the second-highest turnout in the 2020 presidential election with 76.4% of the voting-eligible population participating.
In 2020, Colorado voters approved the state’s membership in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a coalition of states who’ve passed laws pledging their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes from individual Americans instead of the popular vote in a given state.
The agreement does not take effect until enough states have signed on to comprise 270 electoral votes, a majority of the Electoral College. As of April, the National Popular Vote compact had been enacted by 18 states and the District of Columbia, representing 209 electoral votes.
Polis said at the meeting that he supports moving to a direct popular vote for president, noting that a group of U.S. Senate Democrats introduced a constitutional amendment Monday to abolish the Electoral College.
Colorado presidential elector Jarrod Munger of Fort Morgan prepares certificates of votes cast to be mailed to various government entities Dec. 17, 2024, at the Colorado Capitol. (Lindsey Toomer/Colorado Newsline)
Electors took their oath, filled out two ballots — one for president and one for vice president — and each signed six certificates of votes cast, the official record of the vote. Griswold also signed each of the six certificates, making the results official.
The certificates of votes cast were paired with the six certificates of ascertainment Polis and Griswold signed following the certification of the general election results. One pair will be mailed to the U.S. Senate, two pairs to the archivist of the United States, one pair to the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, and the final two pairs will be kept by the secretary of state’s office.