NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020

Super Tuesday 2020: Bernie Sanders prevails in the Mountain states of Colorado and Utah

Polls have now closed in states on Moun­tain Time, and results are clear: Bernie Sanders has won moun­tain­ous vic­to­ries in Col­orado and Utah.

In Col­orado, a swing state with an increas­ing­ly pro­gres­sive elec­torate, Sanders has been lead­ing in the polls in recent weeks. The Asso­ci­at­ed Press has called the state for him. With 21% of the vote in, Sanders has 36% of the vote.

Three oth­er can­di­dates are all viable at the moment. Michael Bloomberg is in sec­ond with 24% of the vote. Biden fol­lows at 20% and War­ren at 17%.

Turnout in the first Col­orado Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry in two decades has been high, accord­ing to the Asso­ci­at­ed Press wire. More than 1.5 mil­lion of Colorado’s 3.4 mil­lion vot­ers had cast bal­lots by mid-day.

One last thing to note: As an all vote-by-mail state, Col­orado is a state where a lot of peo­ple can and do vote ear­ly. Many vot­ers cast bal­lots for Pete Buttigieg or Amy Klobuchar before their with­draw­al from the race. Both can­di­dates “offi­cial­ly” with­drew from the Col­orado pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry, mean­ing that their votes will not be count­ed and they will be award­ed no delegates.

In Utah, Sanders has been lead­ing the tal­ly with 32% of the vote and a third of precincts report­ing. The Asso­ci­at­ed Press has called the race in his favor.

Michael Bloomberg is in sec­ond place there, but his 18% puts him at just over half of Sanders’ vote count. It is still ear­ly. Klobuchar and Buttigieg are account­ing for around 19% of the total count so far.

Turnout has been up. From the Asso­ci­at­ed Press:

The Demo­c­ra­t­ic pri­ma­ry is open in Utah, so vot­ers can cast a bal­lot regard­less of par­ty affiliation.

Many polling places had steady traf­fic, and turnout num­bers were near the 32% pres­i­den­tial-pri­ma­ry record set in 2008, accord­ing to elec­tions direc­tor Justin Lee. It was also the first time in more than a decade for the state to hold a pri­ma­ry on Super Tuesday.

A late swing towards Biden seems unlike­ly in Utah. The for­mer Vice Pres­i­dent is only at 12.25% at the time of writ­ing. But expect his num­bers to climb to above the fif­teen per­cent via­bil­i­ty thresh­old before tal­ly­ing is complete.

Written by Bobby Aiyer :: 7:45 PM

Categories: Elections

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