A number of candidates have told me (via email) that the election is over a week after the ballots are mailed out. That most everyone votes then and mails it back. That does not match what I saw in hits on my website in the special election - it peaked in the weekend before through the Tuesday deadline.
So I got the number of votes received from the County Clerk & Recorder who actually counts the votes. Unfortunately they only started tracking totals on July 3 so we have a total of everything up to and including July 3 and then daily increases. The flat periods are July 4 and the weekend.
So here's a chart of the running total:
Over 40% of the votes came in during the last week. Over 20% came in on the last day. This matches the web traffic this site had during that final period when I had around 500 hits Tuesday (which is 1 hit for every 4 votes cast that day).
I think the web has caused this change. It used to be that you could read the paper, maybe watch a forum, and that was it. Getting additional information required some effort, often quite a bit of time. But now it's Monday night before the deadline, you sit in front of the computer, pull up web pages on each candidate, and make your choices.
I think this is good for a couple of reasons. First, the decision of those using the web rests on what is said, the candidates issue statements, the Camera blog Q & A, other articles about the candidates, etc.. Instead of their performance in a forum and a single newspaper article, voters are now looking at a lot more information.
Second, it levels the playing field. An endorsement from PLAN Boulder and the Daily Camera used to guarantee a win. For voters using the web these now become a single data point in a sea of additional data. Not all articles are equal, but the large number does tend to cause some equalization between them. And it allows posts like this blog to have an impact - with out requiring an investment of anything more than time (about an hour a day right now). Anyone with the time can become a resource on the race.
So my suggestion to the candidates - campaign until Tuesday evening. Because 20% of those votes are being decided on the very last day.
