Longmont’s voter turnout in the 2021 election was better than the state average, according to a recently released report.
The Boulder County Elections Division released the annual Post-Election Data Report on Monday, which showed that 43.1% of Longmont’s voters returned a ballot in 2021. This is better than the statewide average, which saw 40% of voters, but below Boulder County’s 47.3% turnout overall this year.
Ballot return for Boulder County was still lower than 2019’s election, with 52.3% of voters participating, but better than both 2015 and 2017. Odd year elections tend to have lower voter turnout, with mostly local issues and candidates on the ballot.
Older voters are more likely to turnout in Boulder County, with 74.2% of folks over 71 voting in 2021 compared to 18.7% of 18- to 25-year-olds, 31.9% of voters ages 26-40, 50.8% of ages 41-60, and 68.8% of ages 61-70.
Of the 109,366 ballots counted in Boulder County, all but 1,522 were completed with a mail-in ballot. Of those who went to a voter center, 1,336 used a paper ballot and 186 used a ballot marking device.
For mail-in voters, 78% used a 24-hour ballot box to return their ballots, with 9% using the postal service, another 9% using a drive-by ballot drop-off location, 3% at a voting center and 1% other.
Across the entire election, couriers made 258 stops to pick up mail ballots over 54 trips with driving totalling more than 1,800 miles.
To make the election happen, more than 240 temporary election judges and workers were hired with 202 working Election Day along with more than 20 full time staff members. There were also 71 election watchers that checked in at the Ballot Processing Center.
The report highlighted election security, a major focus of the election division over the past decade.
In 2021, the leadership team conducted a tabletop exercise to review possible cyber and physical security threat scenarios and had a visit from the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to review ways to harden physical defenses. Also last year, election judges had a tabletop exercise to review possible emergency scenarios.
Additionally, the election division continued promotion of the election alert hotline, adding a Spanish language option for people to report election concerns.
Of the 231,109 registered voters in Boulder County, more than 134,000 now use Ballot Track, which notifies voters when their ballot is sent and received by the elections division. The division sent out four informational emails to active voters last year, with links to check voter registration, find a 24-hour drop box, see election information, and attend an election information and security webinar.
People not receiving those emails can update voter registration with an email address anytime at www.GoVoteColorado.gov. That information is confidential and not shared with political campaigns, according to the election division.
