Today, the Secretary of State released ballot returns statewide. Honestly, ballot returns in primary races are not that interesting as the contests are between members of the same party, so the number of Democrats vs. Republicans returning ballots doesn’t tell us a whole lot. The one thing it shows is how competitive the primaries are.

For example, if there is a hugely competitive primary in Adams County on the Democratic side, it is likely that the Democratic turnout in Adams will be higher than average. The interesting piece of this reports is the gender breakdown. Whereas gender is more evenly split on the Republican side, female voters are driving turnout on the Democratic side – in general.

Without further ado, here is a breakdown of the ballot returns of a few of the largest counties:

Adams

Democrat: 13,744
Republican: 9,548
Unaffiliated-Rpref: 149
Unaffiliated-Dpref: 241
Total: 30,610

Arapahoe

Democrat: 21,789
Republican: 20,468
Unaffiliated-Rpref: 256
Unaffiliated-Dpref: 498
Total: 54,288

Denver

Democrat: 30,620
Republican: 7,880
Unaffiliated-Rpref: 142
Unaffiliated-Dpref: 590
Total: 49,259

El Paso

Democrat: 14,630
Republican: 31,573
Unaffiliated-Rpref: 509
Unaffiliated-Dpref: 300
Total: 54,890

Jefferson

Democrat: 22,505
Republican: 19,640
Unaffiliated-Rpref: 247
Unaffiliated-Dpref: 408
Total: 53,811

Weld

Democrat: 5,747
Republican: 9,740
Unaffiliated-Rpref: 82
Unaffiliated-Dpref: 81
Total: 19,649