Colorado Republicans hang on to 100,000-vote lead as Democrats make final push

Republicans maintained their 100,000-vote lead in Colorado over the weekend even as Democrats mobilize their ground troops for a strong last-minute surge.

Figures released Monday by the Colorado Secretary of State show Republicans have cast 112,518 more votes than Democrats. At the same time, the GOP’s percentage of the vote dipped from 41.3 percent cast as of Friday to 40.5 percent on Monday.

The Democratic percentage of votes cast remained almost the same — 32.3 percent on Monday versus 32.2 percent on Friday — while unaffiliated voters dropped from 26.5 to 26.1 percent.

The biggest percentage increase was registered by third-party voters, who jumped from 0.8 percent of the vote to 1.1 percent over the weekend.

All eyes are on the Democrats to see if they can make up lost ground in the campaign’s final days with their vaunted get-out-the-vote effort. So far 1.4 million votes have been cast, but analysts have predicted a total of 2.2 million votes in this year’s mid-term election based on the 2010 results.

Another wild card is how the Democratic ground game will perform under the Colorado’s newly enacted all-mail voting system. It’s now too late for voters to mail in their ballots in order to arrive by the 7 p.m. Tuesday deadline, and precinct polling places are a thing of the past.

That means Democrats and Republicans will need to convince their late-minute voters to bring their ballots to drop-off boxes at schools, county clerk’s offices and Department of Motor Vehicles locations.

“Expect a rush of a million ballots over the weekend and Monday, with possibly an exceptional drop-off of procrastinators and people who prefer having an ’Election Day’ event,” Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli said in a blog post.

A perennial battleground state, Colorado features a tight Senate race that may decide control of the chamber. Polls have shown GOP Rep. Cory Gardner running ahead of Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, but a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday shows the Republican ahead by just 45 to 43 percent.