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  Home Page » News » More Democrats Vote Early

More Democrats vote early

Nearly 14,000 ballots already cast in county

by Chuck Slothower
Herald Staff Writer Nearly 14,000 voters in La Plata County have cast their ballots ahead of Election Day, with Democrats turning out in greater numbers.

Statewide, 49 percent of voters have already turned in their ballots. The statistics from the Colorado Secretary of State's office are as of Friday morning.

In La Plata County, 5,652 Democrats have voted, compared with 4,479 Republicans. Across Colorado, 488,575 Democrats have voted, outpacing the 465,869 Republicans who have voted in an election highlighted by the race to capture the state's nine electoral votes for the presidency.

Totals include mail-in ballots that have been received as well as early voters. The figures count ballots submitted by party registration. They do not indicate which candidate voters chose.

Early voting ended Friday, but mail-in ballots will continue to flow in.

Jean Walter, chairwoman of the county Democratic Party, credited the Forward Colorado campaign for increasing turnout. Forward Colorado is a Colorado Democratic Party campaign working on behalf of the candidates for president, U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

The campaign "has been on the phone night and day, encouraging people to vote early," Walter said.

Once voters cast their ballots early, the party has encouraged them to help turn out the vote on Election Day, Walter said.

Ron Tate, chairman of the county Republican Party, said unaffiliated voters are a key voting bloc.

"For a while now, it's been the case that unaffiliated voters really determine the outcomes," he said.

So far, 3,690 unaffiliated voters have cast their ballots in the county.

Republicans will be using a list of volunteers gathered at John McCain's rally in Durango on Oct. 24. Republicans will be calling voters all weekend to turn out the vote, Tate said.

Tate said he was not disappointed that Democrats are outpacing Republicans in pre-Election Day voting because registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in the county.

Democratic voter registrations have surged ahead of Republicans, a gap that is especially apparent when measured by active voters. La Plata County had 10,858 active Democratic voters to 9,910 active Republican voters as of Friday.

Recent polls show Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's lead over McCain in Colorado has widened to a sizable margin. He also leads nationally ahead of final voting Tuesday.

chuck@durangoherald.com