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.