Colorado submitted its 10 electoral college votes for president on Tuesday, with a short ceremony inside the Governor's office at the state Capitol.
All ten Democratic presidential electors voted for Vice President Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for Vice President, the winners of the majority of ballots in the state. Nationally, though, Republican Donald Trump collected 312 Electoral College votes to Harris' 226.
Congress will certify the Electoral College count on Jan. 6, setting up Trump's second inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.
The 2024 election was the first in which the state cast ten votes rather than nine, now that Colorado has eight congressional districts, as well as two senators.
This was also the first election where Colorado topped more than 4 million active voters.
“The final turnout was nearly 80 percent of active voters, and Colorado ranked six nationally for turnout,” Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Tuesday. “I'm proud that so many Coloradans made their voice heard in this important election.”
However, that turnout rate was Colorado’s lowest for a presidential election in more than a decade.
Griswold sat alongside Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Supreme Court Justice Brian Boatright, and with her signature confirmed the 10 electoral college votes.
Colorado has signed on to the National Popular Vote Compact, an agreement among states to cast their electoral college ballots for whoever wins the popular vote nationwide. However, that arrangement only takes effect once enough states have signed on to sway the overall outcome of the election.
Polis brought up the compact at Tuesday’s event.
“I do support that…. when enough states are part of that — and they're very close — Colorado will be one of those states that cast our votes for the national winner,” Polis said. He also noted that “just yesterday in Washington D.C., several United States senators announced they want to propose a constitutional amendment to move to direct election of president. I personally support that too.”
However a constitutional amendment requires support from two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states to pass.
“Until that happens, our electors here are all bound to vote for the candidate that Colorado chose.” Polis said, also reiterating multiple times that he voted for Harris as well.
Colorado’s ten electors are made up of Democrats from around the state and were chosen for the job by their fellow party members at the state convention earlier this year.
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