El Paso County primary election turnout mediocre
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El Paso County's registered voter turnout in the recent primary election did not impress.
Why it matters: The ballot featured competitive Democratic and Republican races for statewide and local offices. In some cases, the contests essentially determined the winner because the districts skew toward one party.
By the numbers: Registered voter turnout reached 27.4%, ranking third in recent midterm primary elections and fourth in all primaries since the advent of mail ballots in 2013, according to an Axios analysis of the official results certified Friday.
State of play: In the Republican primary for governor, two local candidates, Victor Marx and Scott Bottoms, outperformed in El Paso County compared with the statewide total.
- Marx won the county with 42.3% of the vote, whereas he won the state with 39.9%. His margin of victory statewide was 0.5% more than rival Barbara Kirkmeyer, a state senator.
In the Democratic primary for governor, Michael Bennet did better in El Paso than in his statewide showing, but Phil Weiser still won the county and statewide vote.
The intrigue: The county canvass board's Republican member, Candice Stutzriem, refused to sign the election certification, which is a perfunctory task showing that the number of ballots counted matches the number of voters.
- The move essentially disputes the election's integrity and follows a recent pattern among Republicans.
The fine print: The turnout numbers reflect all registered voters, which include active and inactive voters.
- The state and most counties report only active voter turnout (those who receive mail ballots), which artificially inflates the turnout percentages.