It’s called “undervoting” and with an endless ballot this year, it made the county’s tax measure even more of an underdog.

Undervoting occurs when voters skip a race or candidate, and it’s not surprising given the length of the Nov. 4 ballot and the historic presidential race in which the first black was elected, observers say.

Statewide voter numbers aren’t available yet, but in El Paso County’s record-setting turnout, 95.5 percent of voters voted for one of the candidates running for president.Only 1,421 of the 265,828 people who cast ballots didn’t choose someone for the White House.

But voters’ eyes seemed to glaze over and they went into shutdown mode as they went down the ballot. By the time they got to the county’s measure, 26,385 voters had dropped out.

More votes were cast for statewide measures than for the county’s proposed 1 percent sales tax, a so-called pocketbook issue that hit closer to home, yet was ignored by about 10 percent who took the trouble to send in an early ballot or go to the polls.

Not surprisingly, the lowest tally in a race that all county voters could vote on came in the uncontested district attorney’s race. Dan May drew 189,711 votes, even though he ran unopposed after defeating incumbent John Newsome in the Republican primary.

No one has polled voters to determine why they didn’t complete the ballot, but political observers attributed it this year to the enthusiasm generated by President-elect Barack Obama’s candidacy and the state’s record number of ballot measures.

Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli said the larger the turnout, the larger the undervote.

Presidential elections, which draw more voters than off-year elections, attract occasional voters engaged in the presidential race but unfamiliar with or uninterested in state and local politics.

“Add to that the fact we had Obamamania, with some additional increment of new, young, occasional or first-time voters who were just there to vote for that,” Ciruli said.

The lengthy ballot also likely played a role.

“Many people feel like that if they’re not familiar with it, they won’t vote for it,” he said.

“It was incredible – 18 (statewide) ballot issues. And then everything else. Fatigue sets in, and a lot of people begin to drop off at the bottom. On pure geography, where the item is located on the ballot can make a difference.”

Lastly, Ciruli said issues with the largest undervote likely would be those not hyped with advertising, and local issues often don’t have big-budget campaigns for or against them.

“Hopefully, it indicates people are abstaining from voting when they don’t know what’s going on,” said Josh Dunn, UCCS political science assistant professor.

He said undervoting emerged as an issue in 2000 amid voting irregularities in Florida when a good number of ballots were marked for lower offices but not for president. That was suspicious because undervoting normally increases as voters move down the ballot, and the presidential race always tops it.

“It’s not unheard of for people to vote for state legislators or a congressman and not vote for president, but it is less common,” Dunn said. “So the issue was raised on some of these ballots that there was too great of a percentage who didn’t vote for president.”

Dunn said the Obama factor was important, “but not as important as Democrats being tired of the Bush administration.”

“Democrats were anxious to go out and vote,” he said, adding the party had improved their “ground game” in getting out the vote.

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Contact the writer: 636-0238 or pam.zubeck@gazettedev.gazette.com

VOTER TURNOUT

Tuesday’s voter turnout was the highest since at least 1992, according to records readily available at the Clerk and Recorder’s Office, with 71 percent of registered voters casting ballots.

The previous record was 68.6 percent set in 2004 when about 242,000 people voted in El Paso County, the Clerk and Recorder’s Office said.

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