Denver Voters Speak About Election Day and Their Choices

Because so many people vote by mail here, Election Day in Colorado doesn't create very long lines, but plenty of people still voted in person or turned in their ballots on November 5.

At the McNichols Building in Civic Center Park and the Denver Elections Division across the street, voters experienced quick lines and got classic “I Voted” stickers. To get a picture of what Mile High residents anticipate on election night and why they showed up to vote, Westword spoke to several voters about their decision-making.

People who voted in person mainly reported wanting to feel the energy and excitement of Election Day, though some lost their mail-in ballots or felt more secure voting in person. Some voters said they felt overwhelmed by Colorado’s large ballot this year, with voter priorities ranging from reproductive rights to affordable housing to gay marriage, all of which are on the ballot in Denver this year.

Election anxiety has been a theme in 2024. While Denver voters reported feeling some of that, others said they feel more depressed or disillusioned than anxious.

Issues like national stability and the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza came up. Several voters, including Mayor Mike Johnston, said the prospect of electing a woman of color as president for the first time in America’s history was exciting.

Hear the personal stories of seven different Denver voters on Election Day below:

Magdalena Demetriades
Age 26, bartender

Magdalena Demetriades voted in Florida last election cycle and said she had a mail-in ballot lost in the Sunshine State before, so she decided to vote in person this year. It's what she likes to do anyway.

“My dad always took us when we were kids to vote in person with him, and it's always just been really important for me to go on Election Day,” Demetriades said. “I just prefer to do it in person.”

Though she is relatively new to Denver, Demetriades said the public school bond is a priority for her. She also hopes a Harris presidency would help her former home state and immigrants across the country.

Despite a little anxiety, Demetriades is hopeful.

“I love election days,” she said. “I think they're exciting, I think they're fun. I obviously hope it goes my way, but I'm just happy to see a lot of people turning out. I feel like a lot more young people are voting this election.”

She’ll be working behind the bar tonight, and hopes no one talks to her about the election during her shift.

Jasmine Wilcox
Age 25, works at Target

This is the second presidential election Jasmine Wilcox has been old enough to participate in, and the 25-year-old said she likes the energy of voting in person. Though Wilcox feels this election is important, it looms less for her than go-arounds in 2016 or 2020.

“This one is important to me because I like seeing someone that looks like me up there,” Wilcox said of Harris, for whom she voted. “Nothing can be worse than 2016 and 2020. … What's going to happen is what's going to happen. We've already dealt with so much heartbreak that I don't think it can get worse, sadly.”

Wilcox moved to Colorado around four years ago. She said the state’s progressive values are what she hopes stick around under a Harris presidency. Tonight, Wilcox will be at work as results come in.
Mike Johnston
Age 49, Mayor of Denver

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said his wife mails her ballot in, but he likes to fill his out at home and turn it in in person.

“It feels like you're part of the great civic holiday that is voting,” Johnston told Westword after bringing doughnuts to election workers at the McNichols Building today. “You feel like you're doing your duty. You're out there with your fellow citizens.”

Johnston described this election as monumental for the choice people have to “decide what kind of country we want to be” and for the prospect that Kamala Harris could beat Donald Trump and become president.

“It's a big choice, and I think America is up to it,” he said. “I'd love to see this be the first night that we get to celebrate a female American president. The first woman of color to be president would be historic, so I'm nervously waiting for tonight.”

He believes a Harris presidency would bring investment into key priorities in Colorado such as affordable housing, homelessness, climate change and transit. While the mayor has election anxiety, he said he solves that anxiety by diving into work.

“I get very nervous when I'm static,” Johnston said. “I'll be knocking doors, making phone calls, sending text messages. I've sent almost 50,000 text messages myself, personally, the last five days.”

Johnston has been working to push Denver Measure 2R, a sales tax increase designed to help alleviate the city’s affordable housing issues.

“This is the most important issue facing the city,” he said. “We want to make sure people who work in Denver and love Denver can afford to live in Denver.”

While texting people about the measure, the mayor has often been asked to prove it was really him and tries to offer fun facts to prove he's the one behind the screen. Today, November 5, Johnston said he's knocking on doors and trying to get people to vote up until the polls close.

From there, he will watch the results roll in with his family and team.

Alyn Park
Age 73, retired nutritionist and dietician

Alyn Park sent in her ballot by mail a few weeks ago, but was jogging around Civic Center Park today. Park said that although the 2016 election felt bigger to her, this year is critical.

“I’m one of those older generation of women who have fought through fifty years for women’s rights, children’s rights, human rights, protection under the law from any sort of sexual or domestic violence, and I don’t want to see it go to heck in a handbag,” Park said.

Park believes Harris would do her best to represent everyone in the country as much as possible because she is “not a narcissist.”

Amendment 79, the Colorado measure to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution, is the most important item on the ballot to Park.

“I’ll survive this,” Park said. “I have great anxiety for the next generations and their freedoms.”

Because she doesn’t think we will know anything until tomorrow, Park is going to try not to watch too much election coverage tonight.

Brian Corbett
Age 37, works for a nonprofit

Brian Corbett works near Civic Center Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, so he decided to vote in person today to make sure his ballot got counted, and to experience the vibe. It was quieter than he expected, he said.

Though Corbett wasn’t too worried about the ballot measures, he did make sure to vote for his new RTD board of directors member in alignment with an endorsement from Johnston, whom Corbett wants to give “all the tools we can to ensure that he succeeds.”

The election feels consequential to Corbett, but so does every election lately.

“Democracy is always on the ballot, it seems, these days,” he said. “It's unfortunate, but that just seems to be a way that our politics has gone.”

Corbett ended up voting for Harris, but the choice wasn’t easy.

“I certainly would never vote for Donald Trump, but I had considered voting third-party,” Corbett said. “If I didn't have a daughter, I probably would have voted third-party. I'm just hopeful that [Harris] follows through on protecting reproductive freedoms for all Americans, and I hope that we are able to kind of push her a little bit on the Israel and Gaza conflict so that we can have a meaningful peace and just peace.”

Collin Elliott
Age 29, audio engineer
Collin Elliott came to the polls today because he misplaced his mail-in ballot. He described his level of anxiety about this election as normal and voted for Harris because he thinks she will stabilize the country.

“The diversity between how extreme each candidate is and the decisions that they make are going to have a larger impact overall than previous elections I’ve seen,” Elliott said. “There’s a much wider delineation between the values of each candidate, of the primary ones, that people are looking at, so I do think that it’s important to pick one this time.”

Also important for Elliott: Amendment J, which removes a ban on gay marriage from Colorado’s constitution. Elliott voted in favor.

“That’s a really good amendment for us,” he said.

Jasper Blake
Age 32, chef
Jasper Blake described himself as disillusioned by the political process, but came to vote in person because he forgot to update his registration in time to get it in the mail.

“It’s still important to go and cast your vote, but it’s pretty dismal every year of an election,” Blake says.

Neither presidential candidate was a good choice for Blake because of their stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, which he describes as a genocide by Israel on the people of Palestine.

“I voted for Jill Stein, because I believe that a vote for Kamala or for Trump is a vote for genocide, so I don’t want to support that,” he said, admitting he knows he will get flak for that choice.

However, the third-party voter argued that his vote might allow for more progress in the future. He had considered writing in a vote for the Communist Party candidate, but ended up deciding that Stein had more traction.

Blake said the amount of information on the ballot this year was overstimulating, but he hopes that Proposition 130, a police funding measure that would appropriate dollars from the state’s general fund, doesn’t pass.

“I’m definitely more depressed than anxious,” Blake added.