Nearly 50,000 online voter registrations during first six month
Buescher touts convenience and cost-savings of new system
Denver, October 7, 2010 – With the state’s voter registration deadline past, almost 50,000 Coloradans took advantage of the state’s online voter registration system in its inaugural year. This includes a push of 9,520 voter registrations and updates during the final 24 hours.
“I knew rolling out this system that it held great promise and spoke to voter convenience,” Secretary of State Bernie Buescher said. “If you consider that all of those transactions would have required a paper form in the past, you can start to appreciate the cost-savings and efficiencies generated by this innovation.”
Following legislation passed in 2009, Buescher unveiled the new system six months ago on April 1 at GoVoteColorado.com. The system allows anyone with a Colorado driver’s license or state identification card to register to vote or update their registration. In 2008, the state consolidated all 64 county voter registration rolls into one, real-time election management system. The current system already verifies voter registration information by sharing data with the departments of Public Health and Environment, Corrections and Revenue. Through these exchanges, the county clerks can verify the information and capture a digital signature from Revenue to complete the voter’s registration.
“In addition to voter convenience, county clerks can preserve valuable resources by saving time on data entry during critical moments leading up to election day,” Buescher said. “After the election, we’ll continue to make improvements to the system and identify greater efficiencies for the counties and their voters. I can see other states looking to Colorado as an example of a best practice.”
Though the voter registration deadline concluded on Monday, voters can continue to verify their information at GoVoteColorado.com. From there, they can also track the status of their mail ballots or find their polling place or nearest vote center.
Quick Stats
Total users: 49,302 from 63 counties
ACP
|
DEM
|
GRN
|
LIB
|
REP
|
UNA
|
UPA
|
318
|
15,125
|
265
|
780
|
17,378
|
15,411
|
25
|
Online users by gender:
Male
|
Female
|
25,402 (52%)
|
23,900 (48%)
|
Online users by age:
17-19
|
20-29
|
30-39
|
40-49
|
50-59
|
60-69
|
70+
|
5,099
|
11,382
|
10,023
|
8,461
|
7,947
|
4,821
|
1,569
|
10%
|
23%
|
20%
|
17%
|
16%
|
10%
|
3%
|