Jefferson Biggest Vote Total, But Denver Added Most Voters Since 2004

Colorado’s presidential vote total grew by 422,000 from 2004 when President Bush carried the state by 5 points to 2012 when President Obama reversed the results and won the state by 5 points for the Democrats. (See May 28 post: New Voters Move Colorado to the Left).

The Denver metro area generates about 55 percent of the state’s voters, but it supplied 62 percent of the growth in voters since 2004, or 263,000.

Jefferson County produced the most voters among the seven metro counties with 311,000, but Denver had the most new voters since 2004, adding 61,000 (numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand). Denver added a half percent in additional voting clout in the metro area since 2004.

Percentage-wise, Broomfield, the smallest metro county, had the highest rate of voter growth at 43.5 percent, or 10,000 additional voters. But, as usual, Douglas County continued its fast growth rate of 37.7 percent and its large number of new voters, 46,000.

Boulder’s policy of growth control and shedding local governments (Broomfield) had the effect of giving them the slowest growth rate (11.8%). Only Jefferson County, which hasn’t attracted much growth in recent decades, was as slowly growing (13.9%).