November 2024: 87% of Colorado Voters Say They’re Satisfied with State’s Election System
You can view the full questionnaire here, the crosstabs here, and the full analysis deck here.
DENVER — Colorado voters overwhelmingly like the state’s vote-by-mail election system and give high grades to how local officials administer elections, according to results released today from the Colorado Polling Institute’s statewide exit poll survey of 2024 General Election voters.
The survey from the nonpartisan Colorado Polling Institute (CPI) found 87% of Colorado voters say they are satisfied with our current election system where voters are mailed their ballots and can return their ballots via mail or drop-box or vote in-person at a voter service center. Satisfaction was found across party lines, from 72% of Republicans to 99% of Democrats.
When asked to grade how well elections are run where they live, 72% of Colorado voters give local election officials an A or B, with only 12% rating their local election administrators a D or F.
The bipartisan team of Aspect Strategic (D) and New Bridge Strategy (R) conducted the poll of 822 likely Colorado voters October 25 - November 4 via live calls (landlines and cell phones) and online. The margin of error of the survey is +/- 3.42% for the overall sample.
“Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about Colorado is how satisfied we are with our elections,” said Kevin Ingham, Principal of Aspect Strategic (D). “Voters of all stripes like the way we conduct our elections, enjoy voting on ballot measures, and believe our election administrators are doing a good job.”
When asked if they like voting on ballot measures, a striking 85% of voters said they do, nearly matching the 88% of voters who said so in CPI’s last statewide poll in March 2024.
“Despite many pundits bemoaning the length of the ballot, Colorado voters are not shying away from directly deciding policy in our state,” noted Lori Weigel, Principal of New Bridge Strategy (R). “They are just as adamant about liking voting on ballot measures as they were earlier this year.”
The poll found Kamala Harris beating Donald Trump 55% - 42%. Votes are still being counted statewide, so there is no official result in Colorado yet. The survey found a significant gender gap, with Harris tied with Trump among men (49% and 48% respectively), but winning women 61%-36%, representing a 24% gap between men and women.
The poll also found a substantial age gap in the presidential race, with Trump winning voters over 65 years old by 5%, while Harris won voters under 45 years old by 30%
In a notable change from CPI’s last statewide poll in March 2024, substantial majorities of supporters of both candidates said their vote was more about supporting their preferred candidate than opposing the other. The poll found 63% of Harris supporters saying their vote was more for Harris while 36% said it was more against Trump. For Trump supporters, 76% said it was about supporting Trump compared to 24% who said it was more about opposing Harris.
In March 2024, 63% of Biden supporters said their vote was mostly about opposing Trump, while 55% of Trump supporters at the time said their vote was mostly about supporting Trump.
Other notable findings include:
64% of voters said who wins the presidency this year will have a great deal of influence on their lives compared to 55% of Colorado voters who said the same in a poll in 2004. Exactly 65% of Harris voters and 65% of Trump voters expressed that view.
Voters felt informed about ballot measures this year, with 40% saying they felt very well informed, while 52% said they felt informed on some measures while needing more info on others. Only 8% of voters said they didn’t have enough information about ballot measures this year.
Nearly 60% of voters said they supported the abortion rights ballot measure Amendment 79, including 23% of Republicans overall and 33% of younger Republicans aged 18-44. The measure found its strongest support among women under 45, with 77% in support.
Proposition KK, which proposed adding a new state tax on the purchase of firearms and ammunition to fund mental health services, and Prop 131, which proposed all-candidate primaries and ranked choice voting in the general election, had significant partisan gaps, with Republicans opposed to both measures.
Prop 131 had a significant age gap, with its highest support at 58% among men under 45 and its strongest opposition among men over 45 with 59% opposed.
CPI will be releasing additional results and analysis from this poll during the week of November 18th.
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About Us: The Colorado Polling Institute is an independent nonprofit launched in 2023 with the mission of elevating the public dialogue and promoting informed decision-making through timely, trustworthy, and nonpartisan public opinion research on the most important issues facing Coloradans.
