By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
It is the home to every farmer’s favorite diner, Mom’s Kitchen, a county seat whose namesake is more synonymous with a major city in Ohio, and is Colorado’s leader in wheat production at almost 5 million annual bushels.
The rural landowners here count their land in sections, not acres, and many routinely grow crops the old school way, without irrigation pivots.
The last Democratic President to win here was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. Republicans have carried at least three-fourths of the Presidential vote here in each election since 2000 — four of the last five by 80 percent or better.
Situated west of Yuma County, known here as Cory Gardner Country, and south of Logan County, the “backwards L” shaped Washington County is reliable for political candidates it gets behind, generally casting ballots at a higher turnout rate than about anywhere in the state.
That appears to be the case in this year’s party primary election, where many candidates are concerned with low voter turnout across the state at a point in time where a new U.S. representative and a placeholder for the next six months must be selected in the 4th District.
Washington County, with an estimated U.S. Census population of 4,817 and with 3,273 registered voters, has recorded 1,148 returned ballots. That’s a turnout of 35.1 percent, although it amounts to 1.1 percent of all ballots returned across the district. It’s light years better than the 4th District turnout of 20.1 percent and the statewide turnout of 16.1 percent. For perspective, neighboring Morgan County has recorded 3,776 ballots for a turnout, thus far, of 20.6 percent, about 14.5 percent lower than Washington County.
It would figure to be a bit of a boost to hometown candidate Richard Holtorf, who is seeking to become the 4th District’s U.S. representative, or maybe Jerry Sonnenberg from neighboring Logan County.
But, Clerk and Recorder Annie Kuntz says turnout has been a bit disappointing by Washington County standards, even when considered against the other counties in the 4th District.
“We had 1,892 ballots cast in the 2022 primary,” she said, “and in the 2020 election, we had 2,049 ballots cast.”
That’s 750 or more ballots that could be returned by 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, when polls close on Election Day, and potentially give a boost to Holtorf, or the farmer and rancher to the north, Sonnenberg, or one of the other four candidates who reside to the west.
“That seems like a lot. It wouldn’t surprise me to see it, but Mr. Holtorf better start working on getting out his neighbors,” Kuntz joked.
Voters may cast a ballot today and Tuesday at either a drop box location or at a voting center.
Among the 538,837 active registered voters in the 4th District, 108,405 have cast a ballot. Among those, 53,193 reside in Douglas County (49.1%). Voters in Larimer County have turned in 17,245 ballots, comprising 15.9 percent of all returned ballots. Weld County voters have returned 8,572 ballots, 7.9 percent of all ballots returned.
Those three largest voter registration counties combine for 72.9% of all ballots returned thus far, leaving the remaining 18 counties with 27.1 percent, or just over one-quarter of the ballots cast.