Information made available from the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, as of March 15, indicates a Phillips County voter turnout of 52.92 percent of active voters for the March 5 presidential primary election. This exceeds the statewide voter turnout of 38.67 percent. An “active voter” is defined as a registered voter who has a record of voting in the past three years per the county clerk’s rolls.

County-level election-related statistics are considered “unofficial” until the process is closed out by a county canvas board.

Phillips County vote counts of the Democrat’s ballot tallied 161. President Joseph R. Biden received the most votes at 115, or 71.43 percent. The next highest was the “Noncommitted delegate” category with 18, or 11.18 percent, followed by Dean Phillips with 15, or 9.32 percent. Another 13 votes were spread across five of the other six candidates.

County vote counts of the Republican’s ballot tallied 1,284. Former president Donald J. Trump received the most votes at 1,037, or 80.78 percent. The next highest was Nikki Haley with 204, or 15.89 percent, followed by Ron DeSantis with 26, or 2.02 percent. Another 17 votes were spread across the four other candidates.

A law that Colorado enacted in 2016 allows unaffiliated voters to vote in primary elections. They receive both the Democrat and the Republican ballots but must choose which one they will use to cast their vote. They can return only the one ballot voted. If they return both ballots the votes are not counted.

This was the first year that Colorado’s presidential primary was held in March along with 15 other states and America Samoa. It’s dubbed “Super Tuesday” because it’s the day that the most states hold the presidential primary on the same day.

Super Tuesday primary elections resulted in Biden and Trump becoming their parties’ presumptive nominee for president because of the number of electoral votes secured across the participating states.

Final Phillips County vote counts for every presidential candidate will be available when the results become official. Per state election laws, the canvas board shall complete their duties no later than the 22nd day after any election coordinated by the county clerk and recorder.