Democratic Ballot Returns Driving Strong Colorado Primary Turnout

This story by Chase Woodruff appeared on Colorado Newsline on June 29, 2026.

With a ballot full of competitive primary races for state and federal office, Colorado Democrats are on track to turn out for a June primary election at their highest numbers in years.

More than 327,000 Democratic primary ballots had been processed by county clerks across Colorado as of Friday, according to data released by the secretary of state’s office. Just under two-thirds of those Democratic ballots were returned by registered Democrats, while the remainder — 113,173 ballots — were cast by unaffiliated voters. Another 81,156 unaffiliated ballots remained to be processed.

Overall, Coloradans of all parties had returned 639,014 ballots by Friday morning, making up nearly 16% of all active voters in the state.

The early data shows a big rebound from Colorado’s dismal turnout numbers in the 2024 primary election — significantly more voters had cast ballots as of Friday than at the same point two years ago, despite the fact that presidential election years typically see much higher rates of voter participation. The low number of primary votes in 2024 preceded Colorado’s worst presidential election turnout in decades.

As Democratic candidates contest primaries for governor, attorney general, secretary of state, U.S. Senate, multiple congressional districts and several key state legislative seats, Democratic returns are outpacing Republican returns by their widest margin since 2020.

With the winners of statewide Democratic primaries heavily favored to go on to victory in November’s general election, more than twice as many unaffiliated voters are choosing to cast Democratic ballots as Republican ones, according to the early data.

As usual, older voters are dominating early returns. More than 70% of ballots cast as of Friday were returned by voters aged 55 or older, while voters under 35 made up less than 10%.

The primary election is June 30.

Colorado has same-day voter registration, meaning that any eligible voter can visit one of the state’s 137 voter service centers at any time before 7pm on Election Day to register and cast their ballot.

For Coloradans who have already received a ballot, it’s too late to return it through the mail. Voters can return it to a polling center or deposit it in one of the 437 drop boxes maintained by county clerks across the state.

Voters can look up their registration status and see the locations of voting centers and drop boxes at GoVoteColorado.gov.