By 11:59 p.m. on election night, El Paso County voters had returned 324,630 ballots, 54.0% of the county’s registered voters and more than voted in the whole 2022 midterm. Statewide turnout stood at 57.8%, just under the 2022 figure.
The figures come from the Colorado Secretary of State‘s count of ballots returned to county clerks. Turnout here means ballots as a share of all registered voters, active and inactive, the basis on which state law requires county turnout to be reported. On that basis El Paso County finished the 2022 midterm at 52.9% and the 2024 presidential election at 65.9%. Colorado finished them at 58.4% and 70.7%.
So the county has passed its 2022 turnout with ballots still arriving, while the state as a whole is 0.6 points short of its own. Both sit about 12 to 13 points below their 2024 turnout.
The county’s ballot count has grown faster than its turnout rate because the rolls have grown too. El Paso County had 600,631 registered voters on Nov. 1, up 10.2% from 545,049 in 2022. Its 324,630 ballots are 36,571 more than it cast in all of 2022, an increase of 12.7%.
| Election | Ballots | Registered voters | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Paso County | |||
| 2022 midterm | 288,059 | 545,049 | 52.9% |
| 2024 presidential | 387,502 | 587,655 | 65.9% |
| 2026 midterm, election night | 324,630 | 600,631 | 54.0% |
| Colorado | |||
| 2022 midterm | 2,543,316 | 4,355,778 | 58.4% |
| 2024 presidential | 3,241,155 | 4,583,280 | 70.7% |
| 2026 midterm, election night | 2,671,424 | 4,619,533 | 57.8% |
A count still in progress
The 2026 figures are not final. Ballots from military and overseas voters count if they arrive by Thursday, Nov. 12, which is also the last day for voters to fix a missing or mismatched signature, according to the Secretary of State’s 2026 election calendar. Counties must complete the official canvass by Nov. 25. The 2022 and 2024 figures are final, taken from the state’s certified abstracts.
Turnout and the vote count are separate tallies. Steve Schleiker, the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder, told The Gazette that about 63,000 ballots, all cast on Election Day, remained to be counted when tabulation resumed at 8 a.m. Wednesday. By the county’s 3:07 p.m. update it had counted 269,360 ballots, and the statewide count stood at 2,230,576 at 3:15 p.m. Both are still below the ballots returned by election night. The latest count in each race on Tri-Lakes ballots is on the Independent’s live results page.
The Gazette reported that about 80,000 mail ballots went into the county’s drop boxes on Election Day and that 12,700 people voted in person. Schleiker said the day may have set a one-day county record for ballots returned by drop box or cast in person.
Two ways to measure it
Schleiker also told The Gazette that county turnout was about 65%, above what the paper reported as the state’s last estimate of 54%. Both numbers can be reproduced from the state’s figures for the county. Divided by the county’s 508,048 active voters, its 324,630 ballots come to 63.9%. Divided by all 600,631 registered voters, including the 92,583 the state lists as inactive, they come to 54.0%.
The state publishes past turnout on both bases. Measured against active voters, El Paso County’s turnout was 61.4% in 2022 and 77.0% in 2024. Either way, this year’s count is ahead of 2022 and behind 2024.
The Secretary of State will post a new ballot count each weekday through Nov. 12.
Sources & further reading
The Independent’s own coverage: Live Results: Tri-Lakes Races and Statewide Measures, Nov. 3, 2026, the county and state counts for every race on Tri-Lakes ballots.
Secretary of State, 2026: General Election Ballots Returned: November 4, 2026 · ballots-returned spreadsheet, as of 11:59 p.m. Nov. 3 · voter registration statistics (October 2026 workbook, counts as of Nov. 1) · 2026 election calendar
Secretary of State, past elections: 2022 general election turnout · 2023–2024 biennial abstract of votes cast (county turnout, pp. 178–179) · 2024 general election turnout by precinct
Election-night reporting: El Paso County results · Colorado results
El Paso County: Clerk and Recorder election information · Meet Your Clerk
Reporting: Savannah Eller, “Majority of votes counted in El Paso County races; 20% left to go,” The Gazette, Nov. 4, 2026
Methodology
The Independent calculated every percentage in this article from the Secretary of State’s published counts. For 2022 and 2024 the results match the percentages the state prints in its abstracts, on both the registered-voter and active-voter bases. The 2024 registration totals were also checked against the state’s precinct-level turnout file, whose El Paso County and statewide sums match the abstract exactly.
The 2026 ballot figures are ballots returned to county clerks as of 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 3, from the state’s Nov. 4 release. The 2026 registration figures are the state’s county counts as of 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 1: active plus inactive voters, excluding pre-registrants, the same basis as the 2022 and 2024 abstracts. People who registered on Nov. 2 or 3 are not in that count, so the final 2026 denominator will be slightly larger. For the state as a whole, the Secretary of State’s election-night count of eligible registered voters, 4,627,944, gives 57.7%, a tenth of a point below the figure used here; the spreadsheet gives no county breakdown of that count. Military and overseas ballots that arrive by Nov. 12 will add to the 2026 totals. The counted-ballot figures are the ballots cast in the U.S. Senate race, which appears on every ballot, in the county’s and the state’s election-night reporting feeds at their 3:07 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. updates on Nov. 4; they measure counting progress, not turnout. Schleiker’s figures on drop-box ballots, in-person voters and ballots still being processed are as The Gazette reported them; the Independent has not checked them against county records.
Using this reporting? Credit The Monument Independent and link to this article: https://monumentindependent.com/government/el-paso-county-turnout-2026/. Our guidelines are at Using Our Reporting.
