In the 2016 election, 24,189 Colorado voters cast ballots that did not count.
That’s a tiny fraction of the 2.86 million votes counted, about 0.8%, according to state data. but it’s still a remarkable sum in a state that bills itself as one of the easiest places to vote.
The most alarming number: Nine out of 10 rejected ballots could have counted if the voter corrected the error, which is known as curing a ballot.
a colorado sun analysis of rejected ballot data from the 2016 election (the first presidential election with a mail ballot system) found that 67% of those ballots were not counted due to a discrepancy in ballots. firms. another 11% of the rejected ballots lacked a signature. the 2018 election found similar rates.
county clerks conducting elections must notify voters of such errors and give them an opportunity to correct them, but many voters take no further action. this year, voters can correct errors on ballots via text message under an existing program expanded statewide by the secretary of state’s office.
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the remaining part of the rejected ballots cannot be corrected. in the vast majority of those cases, 77%, the ballot arrived after 7 p.m. m. on election day. More than 2,000 ballots in 2016 were rejected for this reason, the sun’s analysis found.
here are six charts to help explain why ballots are rejected and which voters are most affected.
a breakdown of rejected mail-in ballots in colorado
A look at the number of rejected ballots from the 2016 and 2018 elections reveals a pattern as to why votes didn’t count. most of the discarded ballots could have been healed or fixed by voters. a much smaller portion was rejected outright, mainly because they arrived too late.
The turnout in the two elections is different and the reasons for the rejections vary slightly. for example, the proportion of ballots rejected due to discrepancies in signatures and lack of required identification decreased slightly in 2018 compared to 2016.
One reason signature discrepancies may decrease: The more often voters return mail-in ballots, the more signatures the state keeps on file, so there are better benchmarks to compare.
more: colorado elections officials must verify a voter’s signature to count a ballot. this is how it works.
Reasons for rejecting ballots vary significantly by voter age, sun’s analysis found.
Signature discrepancies and the lack of a copy of ID with the ballot disproportionately affect younger voters, many of whom are new to the system. In Colorado, first-time mail-in voters must present a copy of their identification if it has not been previously verified by the county clerk.
and voters under the age of 34 are more likely than their older peers to send in ballots after 7 p.m. m. the day of the elections that are not counted.
More: Do you have questions about voting and mail-in ballots in Colorado? we answered them.
rejection affects younger voters more
A deeper dive into young voters shows how much more likely it is that ballots will be rejected.
In 2016, 3.8% of rejected ballots came from voters ages 18 to 24, four times the state average, the sun found. the second highest proportion of rejected ballots came from 25-34 year olds at 1.6%.
By comparison, only 0.2% of rejected ballots came from voters age 65 and older.
mail-in ballots rejected by party
a partisan breakdown shows similar disparities. unaffiliated voters, those who are not aligned with any political party, see ballots not counted at a higher rate than those of the two major parties. voters affiliated with other non-majority parties also experience higher rejection rates.
Reasons for ballots not being counted also vary by party, with the unaffiliated at the highest levels in all categories. the two major parties, Democrats and Republicans, have a similar number of ballots that arrive too late.
More: How to find out who is behind the political messages flooding screens in Colorado ahead of the 2020 election
a map of rejected mail-in ballots in 2016
A county-by-county breakdown shows that some counties experience a higher percentage of denials than others. small counties are at the top and bottom of the scale.
of colorado’s 12 largest counties, adams county, a key swing district, had the highest rejection rate at 1.5% in the 2016 election, closely followed by mesa county, rich in Republicans, with 1.3%.
This story was produced with the support of a grant from the American Press Institute.