Montezuma County ballot returns track the 2022 midterm
About 7,000 ballots, roughly 35 percent of active voters, were in by Thursday night. In 2022, nearly half of the county's ballots arrived in the final days.
Montezuma County voters had returned 6,989 ballots by 11:59 p.m. Thursday, October 29, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office. That is about 35 percent of the county’s 19,930 active voters, with ballots due by 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 3.
Graphic: Cortez Current. Source: Colorado Secretary of State ballot-return reports and voter registration statistics
The count is close to where the county stood at the same point before the last midterm election. The state’s report on the Friday before the 2022 election showed 6,874 ballots returned, 115 fewer than this year. The county has about 1,350 more active voters than it did then, though, so this year’s returns are a slightly smaller share of the rolls: 35.1 percent, compared with 37 percent.
Returns are behind the 2018 midterm, when 7,143 ballots, or 44 percent of a smaller pool of active voters, were in by the Friday report. They are well behind the presidential elections of 2020 and 2024.
| Election | Ballots in by Friday report | Active voters on October 1 | Share of active voters | Final ballots returned | Share of final in by Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 midterm | 6,989 | 19,930 | 35.1% | Not final | Not final |
| 2024 presidential | 9,495 | 19,463 | 48.8% | 15,763 | 60.2% |
| 2022 midterm | 6,874 | 18,580 | 37.0% | 12,729 | 54.0% |
| 2020 presidential | 11,705 | 17,661 | 66.3% | 15,754 | 74.3% |
| 2018 midterm | 7,143 | 16,170 | 44.2% | 12,031 | 59.4% |
Source: Colorado Secretary of State ballot-return reports and voter registration statistics.
Many ballots are still to come
Ballots kept arriving this week. About 5,000 had come back by Monday night, a deputy clerk told county commissioners on Tuesday. The state’s count three days later was about 2,000 higher.
Past elections show how much of the vote arrives at the end. In 2022, 5,855 ballots, or 46 percent of the county’s total, were returned after the Friday report. In 2018, 4,888 ballots, or 41 percent, came in after that point, and in 2024, 40 percent did.
Returns by party
Unaffiliated voters had returned 2,772 ballots, Republicans 2,726 and Democrats 1,403. Voters registered with minor parties had returned 88.
It is the first time in five even-year general elections, going back to 2018, that ballots from unaffiliated voters outnumbered Republican ballots at this point. Unaffiliated voters are also the county’s largest group of active voters: 9,442 as of October 1, compared with 7,104 Republicans and 2,903 Democrats.
By share, about 48 percent of active Democrats had returned ballots, compared with 38 percent of Republicans and 29 percent of unaffiliated voters. Compared with the same point in 2022, Republican returns are down 239, unaffiliated returns are up 325 and Democratic returns are up seven.
Statewide, 1,335,298 ballots had been returned as of the same time.
How the numbers were compared
The Secretary of State’s office publishes a daily report of ballots returned in each county. This story compares the report issued on the Friday before each Election Day. Those reports cover ballots received through 11:59 p.m. Thursday in 2022, 2024 and 2026, and through 11:30 p.m. Thursday in 2020. The 2018 report is dated November 2 and gives no time.
Active voter counts are the state’s figures as of October 1 of each year. The county clerk’s office mailed 20,310 ballots this year, a number that includes voters who registered after October 1. Final totals come from the state’s last ballot-return report after each election.
How to return your ballot
Ballots must be in the county clerk’s hands by 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 3. Postmarks do not count, and the clerk’s office is advising voters not to mail ballots now.
Six drop boxes are open 24 hours a day until 7 p.m. Tuesday: at the Clerk and Recorder’s Office and City Hall in Cortez, the town halls in Dolores and Mancos, the Lewis Post Office and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Headquarters in Towaoc. The Current’s October 28 story lists their addresses.
The Cortez Voter Service and Polling Center, at Montezuma County Annex 1, 107 N. Chestnut St., is open Saturday, October 31, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Towaoc center, at 495 Sunset Blvd., is open Monday, November 2, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Election Day, every voting center in the county is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., including the Dolores and Mancos public libraries.
Questions go to the county Elections Office at 970-565-3728. The Current’s voter guide lists what is on the ballot.