A Democratic bid to boost midterm turnout in Colorado will face a key test starting Wednesday as mail-in ballots land in mailboxes of the state’s 3.6 million registered voters.
Enacted last year by Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, the vote-by-mail law included other changes to state voting procedures that could boost turnout, including the ability to register to vote through Election Day.
About three quarters of Colorado’s registered voters have voted by mail in recent elections.
But this is the first time registered voters will receive ballots in the mail without requesting them, and in the close contest for Senate between Democratic Sen. Mark Udall and Republican Rep. Cory Gardner, a significant uptick in the voting population could impact the outcome.
“Will this convenience increase turnout?” said Floyd Ciruli, an unaligned pollster based in Denver. “The extra people [ballots are] going to are very infrequent voters. I think there’s at least some worry about scattered possibilities of fraud.”
Richard Coolidge, a spokesman for Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, described in an interview with the Washington Examiner how the Centennial State’s new vote-by-mail system works:
• All registered voters automatically receive ballots in the mail. They are encouraged but not required to return their ballots by mail.
• Beginning two weeks before the Nov. 4 elections, through 7 p.m. on Election Day, voters have the option of traveling to a county “voting service and polling center” and casting their ballot in person.
• The cutoff to register to vote is 7 p.m. on Election Day, when the polls officially close (mail-in ballots will not be counted if they are received later than this). Voters must register to vote eight days before the election, or sooner, in order to receive a ballot in the mail. Registering eight days before the election, or less, requires a voter to pick up their ballot in person.
• County election officials can begin processing ballots immediately, but they will not be tabulated until after the polls close on Nov. 4.
• Although counties won’t count the votes when they process them, they are permitted to reveal how many ballots have been returned.
The latest voter registration statistics, through September, showed 2.9 million active Colorado voters, with another 700,000 who were inactive.
All 3.6 million of them will receive mail-in ballots this week, as long as their addresses are current. Republicans led Democrats among active voters, approximately 949,000 to to 894,000. Democrats led among inactive voters, 220,000 to 189,000.
In 2010, Sen. Michael Bennet, now chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, defeated Republican Ken Buck in a squeaker, winning by just under 29,000 votes. This year’s race looks like it’s headed for another photo finish.
Gardner led Udall in the RealClearPolitics.com average of recent polls 44.8 percent to 43.5 percent.
This is exactly the kind of small margin ripe for impact by voter turnout and the campaigns’ get-out-the-vote operations. The Gardner and Udall teams are both claiming the advantage. Both sides are claiming that they’ll use the new system to their advantage.
“We have an aggressive outreach program across all four corners of Colorado and ensuring voters return their ballots will be a main focus of the campaign as we enter this vital period of the race,” Gardner campaign spokesman Matt Connelly said.
“Democrats are investing an unprecedented amount of money in turnout and that includes a very sophisticated effort in Colorado where they vote by mail and we’re confident that Mark Udall is going to win,” DSCC spokesman Justin Barasky countered.
