Three out of four registered voters turned out for the election last year in Boulder County, according to the newly released 2022 Post-Election Data Report.
Boulder County makes up 5.9% of active voters in the state, according to the report compiled by the Boulder County Elections department. There were 224,533 active registered voters in the county last year, slightly less than 2021, which had the highest number of registered voters in Boulder County ever.
Of registered Boulder County voters, the largest proportion are registered unaffiliated at 45.1%, compared to 39% in 2018. Democratic voters make up 41.9% of Boulder County registered voters, compared to 44% in 2018, and 11.5% are Republican compared to 15.2% in 2018.
Nearly 1.5% of voters are affiliated with a different party, the largest of which is 0.88% Libertarian.
In 2022, Longmont surpassed Boulder with more registered voters — 29.2% of Boulder County voters live in Longmont, compared to 29.1% in Boulder.
Voter turnout in the county was 74.4% in the 2022 election, down from the 82.4% turnout in 2018. Boulder County turnout was still much higher than the state turnout of 66.3% last year.
Just 69.5% of Longmont voters cast a ballot, however, making it the second lowest turnout of all Boulder County municipalities.
While the election had overall lower turnout than 2018, the report noted that more ballots than ever were returned on Election Day — more than 55,000.
Boulder County voters ages 18-25 had the lowest turnout by age in last year’s election, with just under half voting. Voters ages 26-40 cast 63% of their ballot, 41-60 cast 80%, 61-70 cast 89% and 90% of voters over 71.
Of the 167,208 ballots counted, 95.5% of people voted with a mail in ballot while 7,559 people voted in person. The University of Colorado Boulder was the most popular voting location, followed by the Boulder Clerk and Recorder office and the St. Vrain Hub.
More than 80% of mail ballots were returned to a 24-hour ballot box, up 3% since 2018, followed by 7% via post office, down 2% since 2018. The Boulder Clerk and Recorder office was the most popular drop box, followed by the Lafayette Library and the Longmont Clerk and Recorder office.
New this year, five voters used a Spanish-language ballot to vote. Another 191 voters requested replacement ballots using Ballot-to-Go and 1,392 voters registered or updated their registration on election day.
