Early voting returns as of Friday show strong interest among Democratic women in La Plata County.
Overall, more women than men had returned ballots as of Friday – 10,043 women compared with 9,223 men, according to election data provided by state election officials.
That’s a common trend across the country, said Tiffany Lee Parker, La Plata County Clerk and Recorder.
“I know that is a trend throughout the United States; it just seems that more women show up to vote,” Parker said.
Interestingly, the majority can be attributed to female Democratic voters. When breaking down the gender gap between parties, more men have cast ballots from every political stripe, with the exception of the Democratic Party, which had a surge of female voters – 4,385 women compared with 3,018 men.
That may be the result of so many female Democratic candidates on the ballot, including for state House District 59 and Congressional District 3, and two well-known candidates seeking re-election as county commissioners, Parker said.
“At the local level, besides president, people are extremely interested in the commissioner race,” Parker said. “Everywhere I go, people talk about the county commissioner race because it’s so important to locals.”
To break it down further:
Of registered Republicans, 3,133 women and 3,356 men had cast ballots.Of unaffiliated voters, 2,375 women and 2,664 men had cast ballots.Of Libertarians, 81 women and 113 men had cast ballots.Of Green Party voters, 50 women and 51 men had cast ballots.Voters between the ages of 52 and 72 have taken advantage of early voting, with about 50 to 75 percent of eligible voters already casting ballots. In contrast, there appears to be remarkable apathy on the part of young voters, those between the ages of 21 and 35, in which only 20 to 35 percent of eligible voters have cast ballots so far, according to the numbers released Friday.
That comes as disappointing news to Parker, who gave more than 30 talks since August at every school in the region on the importance of voting.
“All of these results are going to affect them the longest,” she said, “I don’t know what to do to make it better. I think we’ve always struggled in that area, and I don’t get it.”
As of Friday night, Parker had 21,336 ballots returned, or about 58 percent of active voters and 48 percent of inactive voters – those who didn’t vote during the last presidential election.
Of those 20,728 were mail ballots, she said. The others were in-person votes and pick-up ballots.
For those who need to register to vote or pick up a ballot, all election sites will be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Election Day. Twenty-four-hour drop-off sites are located throughout the county.
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