Face The State Staff Report
While the Associated Press is reporting that Larimer County has registered 40,000 new voters since July, the county's election officials are questioning where that total came from.
Scott Doyle, the Larimer County clerk and recorder, says the real number is actually about half that. According to his records, there have been 22,320 new voters registered in the county since July. Voter registration drives are responsible for 19,892 of those new voters. "We got hit hardest after Labor Day," he noted.
In this historically conservative county, Republicans still hold the registration lead with 63,874. Unaffiliated voters follow with 59,717 registered voters, while Democrats come in third with 53,333. Third parties trail with 13,048 registered voters.
About 180,000 new voters were registered statewide during this same period. Doyle isn't sure how the 40,000 estimate for Larimer County was reached or reported by the Associated Press and Rocky Mountain News, but he says the real number is still significant. It makes up 13 percent of the 178,272 active voters in the county, with active voters being defined as anyone who voted in the last general election.