In Part 5, I examined Chaffee County’s +6.74-point blue shift from 2020 to 2024. While notable in a national red-wave year when more than 90 percent of U.S. counties shifted right, that shift was actually smaller than the dramatic leftward move the county experienced from 2016 to 2020 (+11.30 points). Extending the analysis back to 2012 reveals a consistent and striking pattern: the number of Democratic votes in Chaffee County has grown far faster than the county’s population. From 2012 to 2024, Democratic presidential votes increased by 57% (from 5,086 to 7,992), while the county’s population grew by just 14.4% (from roughly 18,164 to 20,780). The most explosive growth occurred between 2016 and 2020, when Democratic votes jumped an extraordinary 46.5% while the population increased only 1.8%. Even in the 2020–2024 cycle, Democratic votes rose another 11.6% while the population grew 6.7%.
This pattern stands in sharp contrast to Chaffee’s eight neighboring counties. From 2016 to 2024, the combined Democratic vote total in those counties actually declined by 796 ballots. Chaffee was the only county in the region to post large, sustained gains in Democratic participation — and it did so while achieving a rare turnout increase of 705 ballots in 2024, reaching an 86.85% turnout rate in a year when most of Colorado and the nation saw participation drop.
None of these numbers prove misconduct. Demographic change and in-migration can contribute to shifts in voting patterns. However, the pattern in Chaffee remains highly unusual. While neighboring resort counties like Pitkin and Eagle, both heavily Democratic and wealthier, actually became redder or stay roughly the same between 2016 and 2024, while Chaffee continued moving sharply left.
Margin Comparison (2016–2024)
| County | 2016 Margin | 2020 Margin | 2024 Margin | Net Shift 2016–2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chaffee | Trump +4.47% | Biden +6.83% | Harris +13.58% | +18.05 points (bluer) |
| Pitkin | Clinton +45.46% | Biden +49.90% | Harris +43.3% | -2.16 points (slightly redder) |
| Eagle | Clinton +17.82% | Biden +23.60% | Harris +18.20% | +0.38 points (slightly bluer) |
While Colorado’s expansion of automatic voter registration at the DMV in 2020 likely contributed to higher overall registration rates, it does not explain why Chaffee County diverged so sharply from neighboring counties like Pitkin and Eagle, which operate under the same rules but tracked differently from Chaffee.
Adding another layer of concern is the fact that voter registration rates in Chaffee County have remained unusually high. Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against Colorado in 2020, in which they identified Chaffee County as having at 103% voter registration rate of its voting-age population. Using the most recent public data, Chaffee County’s total registration rate stood at approximately 112–115% in 2024 and remains around 111–114% as of early 2026. These figures continue to exceed 100% even after Secretary of State Jena Griswold removed hundreds of thousands of inactive registrations statewide following the 2023 Judicial Watch settlement.
The scale of the divergence, Democratic votes growing three to four times faster than population over more than a decade, while neighboring counties moved in the opposite direction, combined with persistently high registration rates, is unusual enough to warrant serious, transparent examination. When a county repeatedly shows voter growth that dramatically outpaces its population, and when that growth occurs under a single clerk’s office using the same voting equipment, citizens have a legitimate right to ask questions and expect clear answers.
The 2024 blue shift, while striking amid worsening quality-of-life metrics. Median home prices have climbed from near $665,000 in 2024 to around $780,000 by early 2026, with 91 percent of local households unable to afford a home here. The county’s new Land Use Code, adopted in late 2024, has imposed stricter setbacks, habitat restrictions, and discretionary approvals that have reduced property rights and chilled new housing supply exactly when affordability is collapsing.
Compounding the problem is the absence of consistently skeptical news coverage of government action. When tough questions about results versus rhetoric go unasked, residents are subtly led to believe the status quo is acceptable.
The bigger question heading into 2026 is this: What will it finally take for voters, especially unaffiliated voters, now the largest bloc in Colorado, to choose self-interest over loyalty to policies that have failed to deliver on housing, costs, infrastructure, and personal freedom? Chaffee voters showed up in record numbers in 2024. The question for November 2026 is whether they will channel that energy into demanding real accountability or allow the same failed government to retain supermajority power.
Our election and elected officials cry foul or claim they are threatened whenever questions are asked. The one thing they never do is provide satisfactory answers.
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