Thursday, May 17, 2007

Voter turnout in Denver since 1987

When the Denver Election Commission purged voter lists earlier this year, many folks were outraged. However, the graph below shows that the number of "active voters" was actually near the historical average even after the purge.

The graph also shows that turnout was very respectable, especially when you consider that the percentage of active voters submitting ballots hasn't exceeded 50% in Denver since 1995. Indeed, see how similar the numbers are between the "exciting" 2003 campaign and its open mayoral seat and this year's "boring" election, which got virtually no media attention.
Prior runoff elections have involved virtually the entire city, and gained more or less the same number of votes as the general election. Since this year's races are limited to only Council Districts 3, 7, and 8, we should expect to a much smaller turnout - perhaps a few thousand less than the 16,427 votes in those districts earlier this month.