Author: I-70 Scout

Whether voters believe Colorado’s elections are secure comes down to their political persuasion

By Vignesh Ramachandran, Colorado News Collaborative

Even though Colorado’s voting system is often regarded as one of the most efficient in the country, not all Coloradans believe so.

It comes down to partisanship: Democrats often believe in the integrity of the voting system, while Republicans generally remain more skeptical. This is all according to survey research from the American Politics Research Lab at the University of Colorado at Boulder. 

With unfounded claims of massive voter fraud rampant, some Coloradans fear their votes won’t get counted accurately. The Colorado News Collaborative is speaking with nonpartisan experts to help voters understand more about the integrity of the vote.

Anand Sokhey is an associate professor in CU Boulder’s Political Science Department and directs the American Politics Research Lab, which tracks voter attitudes in Colorado to better understand how elections are viewed across the state. Since 2016, the lab has conducted annual political climate surveys each fall in partnership with YouGov, a national polling company. 

Last year, the survey began asking Coloradans questions about their perceptions about the fairness of the electoral process. COLab spoke with Sokhey to understand the results of the most recent survey.

This Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.

How are Coloradans feeling about our national elections process, according to the results of the most recent survey published in 2021?

We asked people as a starting point whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement: “Elections across the country will be conducted fairly and accurately.” We found that agreement on that was at 49%, disagreement was at 37%, and we had 14% of our respondents saying they weren’t sure. 

Now, if we break that out by [party], based on our respondents’ self-identified partisanship, … we see these partisan splits on a question like this. So, while overall 49% of Coloradans were agreeing that elections across the country would be conducted fairly and accurately, that jumps among Democrats to 66% agreeing with that statement. But it drops among Republicans to only 32% agreeing with that statement.

What about our state elections process here in Colorado?

With respect to Colorado, people seem to express a little bit more confidence in and support for what’s going on where they live versus nationally.

So we asked them to agree or disagree with the statement: “Elections in Colorado will be conducted fairly and accurately.” Those numbers rise to about 68% of Coloradans agreeing with that statement and only 12% said they weren’t sure. 

If you look at that by partisanship with Colorado, 91% of Democrats agree that elections in the state are going to be conducted fairly and accurately. Among Republicans, it drops, but it’s not quite as dramatic as it did for the national assessment: 45% of Colorado Republicans agree with that statement, 40% disagree with it and 16% say they’re not sure. 

Among independents in our sample, we saw that 55% of them agree that elections in Colorado would be conducted fairly and accurately. 

So overall, there’s more confidence in the conduct of elections in Colorado versus when you ask about broad national assessments or dynamics, but you’re definitely still seeing partisanship play into this.

Why do you think partisanship influences people’s perceptions of our election processes?

With Democrats, you saw them responding for perhaps two different reasons when you ask them about whether or not elections across the country are going to be conducted fairly and accurately. There’s confidence in those in charge of the federal government with [Democrat Joe] Biden being in the White House. But there’s a concern, for example, among Democrats that in certain red states, efforts are going to be made to suppress the vote.

Republicans are not expressing as much confidence nationally. One, because of Trump rhetoric. But two, because they’re thinking about the constellation of blue versus red states. In some ways, when you ask the national confidence questions, you see these accentuated differences on both sides for different reasons, assuming the other side has worse intentions.

Do Coloradans believe there need to be reforms to voting laws?

This would be asking them to think about the 2020 elections. So we said: “How much do you agree or disagree that the election showed that we need to make changes to voting laws across states?” 

You saw 63% of our respondents agree that we needed to see voting laws change across states. But again, the breakouts there were definitely different by party. A majority (53%) of Democrats agreed with that statement, 40% of them disagreed, and 8% weren’t sure. [Most] Republicans (78%) agree with that statement of our Colorado sample, 14% disagree and 8% were not sure. 

When you ask about the need for reforms based on the 2020 presidential election, you’re seeing [Coloradans] give their assessment of whether reforms are needed nationally, based on these kinds of partisan dynamics.

We then asked about whether the 2020 presidential election showed that we need to make changes to voting laws in Colorado. Only 41% of our sample overall agreed and 45% disagreed. But there again, the partisan splits are huge. Only 25% of Democrats agreed, and most (64%) disagreed. But among Colorado Republicans, 61% agreed that we need to see changes in Colorado, and only 24% disagreed. 

It’s an interesting projection of national politics onto local politics, even though, overall, you see people expressing more support for electoral processes in the state where they reside versus thinking about what might be going on in other states.

 

What’s next in better understanding Coloradans’ views on our voting process?

 

We had years of [mail-in voting] going without controversy. It wasn’t until we started to get into 2020 where we really saw the election integrity attacks in earnest. That kind of rhetoric certainly seems to have an impact. 

[Mail-in voting] wasn’t always politicized in Colorado, and it’s not an innovation. It’s been going for some time. 

Something that a lot of us who work in survey research and public opinion polling are trying to suss out is the attitudes on this stuff that divides on party lines very cleanly. The question is about … the extent to which this is cheap talk, right? How much concern do people truly have about these things? Just like when you ask people about how likely they are to support undemocratic actions in the wake of an election or given concerns about legitimacy? Are they expressing partisan frustration?

We do need to ask ourselves questions about what’s driving those responses. Do this many Coloradans, based on partisan breakouts, really have this much skepticism about the electoral integrity of voting in Colorado,  or is it more of a partisan thing? We have more work to do on that.

Have more questions about voting in Colorado? Email us at and put “Elections” in the subject line. You can also find more information directly from the state at GoVoteColorado.gov.

This story is brought to you by COLab, the Colorado News Collaborative, a nonprofit coalition of more than 170 newsrooms across Colorado working together to better serve the public. Learn more at https://colabnews.co

Coloradans should feel confident their ballots will get counted correctly, election experts say

By Vignesh Ramachandran, Colorado News Collaborative

Colorado is known for its mail-in-ballot system that some election experts have called the “gold standard” in the nation. But with unfounded claims of massive voter fraud rampant, some state residents remain concerned about whether their vote will get counted.

The Colorado News Collaborative is speaking with nonpartisan election experts to help the public understand more about the integrity of the vote. One of them, M.V. (Trey) Hood III, is a professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia. His state has been the epicenter of high-profile claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, which have been found false.

 

This Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.

How easy is it for someone to mess with the vote?

Certainly every state has a lot of things that have been put in place to prevent voter fraud, so a lot of safeguards are in place. It’s not necessarily easy to commit voter fraud. It does happen — it’s pretty episodic and rare, though. But, the fact that it does happen some – that’s what gets into the news and that’s sort of what reinforces the belief that it’s just completely rampant.

[Editor’s note: In Colorado, the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation has documented 16 cases of voter fraud in the entire state since 2005.]

Georgia has been in the news in the last few years because of Trump supporters and allies claiming fraud in the 2020 Election. What are your thoughts about these claims, which have been found baseless?

 

In Georgia, all kinds of claims were made, and there has just been no evidence at all.

 

Outside of a handful of cases, there’s no evidence at all that there was voter fraud anywhere at the level that would flip an election. We had an initial presidential count, we had a machine recount and we had a full hand recount of the presidential election — all showing the same thing.

 

The only difference was that, administratively, we found out there were a couple of precincts and a couple of counties where their [results data] were not uploaded properly. So that was an administrative issue. It wasn’t fraud or anything like that. And they got corrected through the recount process. But even that didn’t come anywhere near to changing the outcome.

In Colorado, we have more than 3.7 million active registered voters. The conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation has documented 16 cases of voter fraud in the entire state since 2005. So what’s the takeaway from those numbers?

 

In general, cases of proven, verified voter fraud are rare.

State (governments) are sort of the arbiters of elections, and even within that it’s really devolved down to the county level, or in some states, even to the township level. That’s where elections are being carried out at a very low level in the U.S. To perpetrate some kind of massive fraud, that makes it even more difficult given how devolved elections are in the U.S. It’s not like we have one central counting place in Washington, D.C.

 

You’d really need more than just voters. You need the cooperation of election officials, which is not going to happen, obviously. You should feel confident when you cast a ballot that it’s going to get counted and counted correctly.

What is a primary safeguard to ensure the integrity of the vote in U.S. states like Georgia, for example?

 

In Georgia, there are a lot of safeguards in place if you vote in person. You have to have a government-issued ID. So if you vote early, or on Election Day, it would be fairly difficult to try to impersonate someone. Even if you’re successful, that’s just one vote. I’m not saying that it’s not important to even stop fraud in terms of one vote, but it’s difficult to produce fraud on a massive scale.

 

We do have absentee-by-mail ballots. We used to use signature verification. So the election office would compare the signature on the ballot envelope to the signature that’s in the registration system or the DMV system to see if they match. We moved from that safeguard to having to now put your driver’s license or state ID card number on not only your ballot envelope, but even on your application to get a ballot. There are exceptions — say you have a passport, for instance, you can photocopy that and attach it. But for most people, it’s putting their driver’s license or state ID number on their application to get a ballot or on their ballot envelope when they return it.

 

Every state has some kind of verification process that they use, whether it’s signature verification for absentee ballots, or a couple of states like Georgia using state ID numbers. In North Carolina witnesses sign your ballot affidavit or your ballot envelope as an affidavit that you are who you are.

(Editor’s note: Voter ID laws vary by state. In Colorado, an ID is requested for in-person voting and a photocopy of an ID may be needed when voting by mail for the first time.)

 

What if someone just uses a fake ID to vote?

 

You would have to be in the Department of Motor Vehicles system. So you’d have to create a fraudulent identification, essentially, for that to work, which is probably not going to happen.

What mistakes can happen with absentee ballots?

A lot of things that may look like fraud are a husband accidentally sends in his wife’s absentee ballot and vice versa. So not fraud — just a mistake that needs to be rectified.

 

Or someone who is dead votes. Well, what happened? They mailed their absentee ballot before they passed away. So not fraud. Now, it depends on the state as to whether that would count or not since the individual is deceased. Technically, in Georgia, it shouldn’t count. But it’s not fraud by any means.

For voters who have concerns that our systems are secure, what can they do?

 

I would just encourage people to the extent to which they are concerned, to look into things — see what safeguards are there and how they’re being employed, as opposed to just thinking something is going on without investigating. A lot of the election process in a lot of the places in the U.S. is a very open system. Obviously, the ballot is secret, but the administrative part of it is very open. Most counties have a board of elections or a board of registrars — or both sometimes — and there are open meetings. There’s no shortage of information nowadays.

There is a lot of thought that has gone into this in any state. There are a lot of security and safeguards that are placed in the state’s election code to specifically prevent fraud. I would welcome anyone who’s brave enough to look at their state’s election code. It’s not the most interesting thing, but you can get an idea of just how many safeguards are in place.

People can also certainly sign up to work the polls or in other capacities.

Are there other voting issues Americans should be focusing on?

What we should be doing is trying to increase voter confidence in the system for all partisans, whatever stripe. Now this seems to be easier said than done, unfortunately.

Have more questions about voting in Colorado? Email us at and put “Elections” in the subject line. You can also find more information directly from the state at GoVoteColorado.gov.

This story is brought to you by COLab, the Colorado News Collaborative, a nonprofit coalition of more than 170 newsrooms across Colorado working together to better serve the public. Learn more at https://colabnews.co

By DAVID A. LIEB and KAVISH HARJAI
Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) _ The call went out from leaders in the medical marijuana industry: Money was needed for a Missouri ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis for adults. Their colleagues responded.

Marijuana farms, manufacturers and retailers provided millions of dollars that footed a petition drive to put the proposal on the November ballot and promote it to voters. The deep-pocketed outpouring highlighted the depth of the emerging industry’s roots in the traditionally conservative state, as well as its tremendous potential for growth.

All told, marijuana legalization campaigns have raised about $23 million in five states _ Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota. The vast majority of that has been in Arkansas and Missouri, where more than 85% of contributions have come from donors associated with companies holding medical marijuana licenses, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent campaign finance reports.

The biggest donor is Good Day Farm, which describes itself as the “largest licensed medical cannabis producer in the South” with facilities in Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana. It gave a combined $3.5 million to legalization campaigns in Arkansas and Missouri. And when the Missouri campaign needed help gathering petition signatures, Good Day Farm paid an additional $1 million directly to the firm circulating the petitions.

“It’s kind of the cost of doing business, I guess,”said Alex Gray, chief strategy officer at Good Day Farm. “This is something that is a positive for the industry, but it’s also a positive for the state.”

Licensed medical marijuana businesses affiliated with Greenlight have given a total of about $1 million to legalization campaigns in Arkansas, Missouri and South Dakota, according to the AP’s analysis.

If the ballot measures pass, Greenlight CEO John Mueller said he expects to “easily double” a workforce of about 370 people at Greenlight-affiliated cultivation farms and dispensaries in Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota and West Virginia.

“Obviously, your consumer base goes up when you go to adult use,” said Mueller, a self-described activist who encouraged industry colleagues to contribute to the legalization campaigns.

Provisions in the proposed constitutional amendments in Arkansas and Missouri would give established medical marijuana licensees a leg up in the new recreational marketplace. But Mueller said the measures don’t merely enrich the industry.

“It’s more jobs, more tax revenue _ get it off the black market,” he said.

Marijuana legalization efforts elsewhere have not eliminated illegal dealers. California voters approved recreational marijuana use in 2016 following a $36 million campaign for it, and the first retail stores opened in 2018. Yet a vast illegal market remains _ more than double the legal sales, by some estimates.

Medical marijuana was authorized voters in 2016 in Arkansas and North Dakota, in 2018 in Missouri and in 2020 in South Dakota. Like elsewhere, it took a while to get the programs up and running. But in less than two years since Missouri’s stores opened, medical marijuana dispensaries have reported about $500 million in sales.

The Arkansas campaign to legalize recreational marijuana for adults has raised over $13 million, including more than $8 million in October alone, while the Missouri effort has raised more than $7 million. Campaigns in other states have raised less than $1 million each. Maryland’s initiative has been particularly low-profile, raising a little over $300,000 amid presumed broad public support.

In Arkansas and Missouri, resistance has come from an unusual alliance of public safety groups, social conservatives opposed to legalization and some marijuana advocates who believe the ballot initiatives are still too restrictive.

The Arkansas opposition is the best funded among the states. Uline CEO Richard Uihlein and Mountaire Corp. CEO Ronald Cameron each contributed $1 million to the Safe and Secure Communities campaign committee. Its ads have asserted that legalizing marijuana for adults will cause a spike in traffic fatalities and illegal use by youths, among other things.

Other critics contend the Arkansas measure is structured to benefit only a limited number of dispensaries, noting it lacks provisions allowing adults to grow marijuana at home or expunging past convictions.

“This amendment is not a start,” said Melissa Fults, executive director of Arkansans for Cannabis Reform. “It is a brick wall.”

Missouri’s legalization measure _ which does expunge many past marijuana arrests and convictions _ has drawn opposition from Pro-Choice Missouri. The abortion rights group said it backs cannabis legalization and expungement as “an issue of reproductive justice” but believes the measure doesn’t do enough to address the historic harms from the “racist criminalization of cannabis.”

A total of 19 states have legalized recreational marijuana for adults since voters in Colorado and Washington state first approved ballot measures in 2012. Those early efforts were heavily funded by wealthy individuals, such as former Progressive Insurance CEO Peter Lewis. Tech billionaire Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, ranked among the top donors to California’s legalization campaign.

But philanthropic funding for legalization campaigns has fallen as the marijuana industry has risen.

“The philanthropists who really got this movement off the ground” are either are “ready to move on to other issues or they don’t think it’s their place to support this movement, given that the industry is now mature and many of these businesses are making a lot of money,” said Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

Schweich moved to South Dakota to run this year’s legalization campaign. The Marijuana Policy Project also is providing staff support for the North Dakota campaign. But it isn’t as deeply involved Arkansas and Missouri, where there are greater industry resources.

New Approach, another D.C.-based drug policy group, has directed more money to psychedelic mushrooms than to marijuana this year. It’s poured $4.2 million into a campaign to make Colorado the second state, after Oregon, to allow adults 21 and older to use hallucinogenic chemicals found in some mushrooms.

Meanwhile, New Approach has contributed a total of around $700,000 to marijuana legalization campaigns in Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota. As the medical marijuana industry has grown, the organization has refined its targets.

“Our focus in recent years has been on initiatives in traditionally red states, in part because that is what we see as the most effective way to continue to move toward broader acceptance of cannabis policy reform,” said New Approach Chief of Staff Taylor West.

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Learn more about the issues and factors at play in the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections. And follow the AP’s election coverage of the 2022 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.

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Associated Press writer Andrew DeMillo contributed from Little Rock, Ark. Harjai, who reported from Los Angeles, is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Colorado’s election process is sometimes seen as more partisan than it actually is, according to the League of Women Voters

Vignesh Ramachandran, Colorado News Collaborative

For 102 years, the League Of Women Voters has helped Americans understand how they can cast their vote in elections.

The nonpartisan organization has never endorsed a political party or candidate, providing a valuable resource for voters of all political persuasions.

The Colorado News Collaborative is speaking with nonpartisan experts to help voters understand more about the integrity of the vote as unfounded claims of voter fraud continue to run rampant ahead of November’s midterm election.

Beth Hendrix is executive director of the League of Women Voters of Colorado, which educates voters about the security and efficacy of Colorado’s election system. The group recently published a whitepaper breaking down the components of the state’s voting system to explain why it often is regarded as leading the nation. It also produced a nonpartisan guide to the 11 state issues on Colorado’s ballot this year in English and Spanish. 

This Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.

Some have said Colorado’s election system is better than those in all other states. Is that true?

Absolutely. We say [it’s the] gold standard. There are a few states that are close behind — Washington, Oregon. It’s always the Western states.

Why? Aren’t there aspects to Colorado’s election system that need improvements?

Here in Colorado, we’re doing pretty well. That said, we have people in our legislature that want to get rid of mail-in ballots and want to go back to voting only on Election Day because they feel that’s the only way it can be secure. I disagree. The League disagrees. 

Other states are purging voter rolls, making it more difficult to vote, and that’s not happening in Colorado, yet. We’re going to do everything we can to not allow it to happen.

We’re not resting on our laurels [in Colorado], but we’re good. We have a safe and secure and innovative system that’s ahead of any place else in the nation.

 

How hard would it be to defraud the vote in Colorado?

 

I think it would be pretty darn hard [to defraud the vote in Colorado]. 

I suppose that someone could take their spouse’s ballot and forge a signature, and then hope their spouse didn’t complain. But I don’t think it happens.

 

How can we trust that every vote gets counted in Colorado?

 

Counties have a small bit of variation, autonomy in how they do it. But generally speaking, a ballot is never alone with only one person. There are always at least two and usually a group of bipartisan people. The number of safeguards is pretty extraordinary. 

The complaint I hear most is that voter registration rolls aren’t up to date and that dead people still get ballots and things like that. I’m sure that does happen. But overall, Colorado keeps its voter registration rolls pretty well up-to-date — partnering with the Postal Service for change of address, social security death index, the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) to make sure people aren’t voting in other states.

Then there’s the ballot tracing. You can sign up very easily for ballot tracing. And you get a text when your ballot is opened, when it’s counted. So the process is very transparent, while maintaining security.

 

What are common misconceptions about Colorado’s election security?

 

The process is sometimes seen as more partisan than it is — that political parties have a say in the counting. And while the political parties have election judges there, it is bi-, tri- multi-partisan. 

People [also] think that the process of counting ballots is up to just a small handful of people, it’s very secretive and nobody knows what’s going on. It’s just not true.

 

People don’t understand how easy it is to get involved in poll watching, if they so choose. A lot of people think that it’s a secretive, closed, non-transparent process, and that is not the case.

 

So in addition to poll-watching, how can someone who is skeptical of the process better understand it?

 

Call your county clerk and ask for a tour, but it’s kind of a bad time of year to make that request. They’re getting threatened and harassed like never before. We just had to pass a law to protect election workers.

Are there other concerns you have about our democracy in Colorado?

People not being able to recognize opinion versus fact — looking at Tucker Carlson and Rachel Maddow as newscasters as opposed to opinion-casters. We’ve been trying to also put out information about news literacy. 

The League has used our volunteers as government watchdogs and observers since our founding 102 years ago. We’re now expanding that to allow those trained observers to bolster local news, where there are news deserts. If there’s just one little newspaper with one reporter down in Cortez, and they can’t get to the city council meetings and the county commission meetings and the meeting of the water board … our observers are going to do that and report out about what happened at that meeting, if sunshine laws are being followed, if behavioral norms are being followed, things like that.

Have more questions about voting in Colorado? Email us at and put “Elections” in the subject line. You can also find more information directly from the state at GoVoteColorado.gov.

This story is brought to you by COLab, the Colorado News Collaborative, a nonprofit coalition of more than 170 newsrooms across Colorado working together to better serve the public. Learn more at https://colabnews.co

By JAMES ANDERSON
Associated Press

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) _ Seeking a second term as Colorado’s governor, Democrat Jared Polis refers to himself with a simple phrase as he tries to fend off a barrage of attacks from a challenger trying to become the state’s first Republican governor since 2007: “Happy dad.”

The father of two’s optimism is a rebuttal to Republican Heidi Ganahl, who is trying to channel the angst of parents worried about underperforming schools, drugs and post-pandemic crime this mid-term election by using the campaign slogan “#MadMom” and painting a darker portrait of the state.

“We have skyrocketing crime, out of control inflation, a huge fentanyl problem that’s killing our kids, and our kids can’t read, write or do math at grade level,” Ganahl said in a recent debate. All are nationwide issues.

Polis, a wealthy tech entrepreneur and former U.S. representative, counters with a rosy picture of the state under his watch and insists Colorado’s best days are ahead as it emerges from the pandemic with a strong economy and healthy state revenues bolstered by federal relief spending.

“My opponent identified herself as a mad mom. I identify myself as a happy dad, of two great kids, 11 and 8, raising my kids in the best state of all the states,” Polis responded at the debate.

Ganahl, a University of Colorado regent, mother of four and successful entrepreneur, faces stiff odds but is undaunted in a state that has become increasingly Democrat-controlled in the last decade, said Dick Wadhams, a former state Republican Party chair.

“Heidi is very competitive, but it’s a high bar,” Wadhams said. “She clearly has shifted her message and she’s doubled down on social issues. There is a lot of angst among families about the damage done during the lockdown.”

“But when you have an incumbent governor with unlimited money, that’s a hard thing to overcome,” Wadhams added.

Polis has spent more than $12 million on the campaign, most of it his own money. Ganahl’s spending is just over $3 million.

Once a swing state, Colorado has shifted to blue over the past decade. Former President Donald Trump lost by 13 percentage points in 2020, and Republicans have not won a top-tier race in the state since 2014.

An opponent of late-term abortion, Ganahl would like to rescind a new law signed by Polis enshrining abortion rights in a state that’s repeatedly voted to keep them _ and put the issue to voters again. She wants to eliminate the state income tax and cut its gas tax while trimming the state bureaucracy by 40% over a first term and gutting waste and fraud.

Ganahl also selected Navy veteran Danny Moore, an election denier, as her running mate, though both she and Moore insist they recognize Joe Biden as president.

“I think people are beginning to appreciate the extreme radical nature of her rhetoric,” Polis said recently. “Her scheme to cut the income and gas tax would cut funding for the state patrol by 50%, hurt schools, increase property taxes.”

The daughter of a police officer, Ganahl insists she’d never cut, but rather boost, law enforcement funding.

Ganahl has hammered Polis for issuing dozens of executive orders on mask wearing and indoor gatherings that hurt business and schools in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. Polis, who lifted orders earlier than most U.S. governors and often clashed with the federal government over delays in vaccine authorizations and availability, insisted throughout the crisis his goals were to avoid deaths and overwhelmed hospitals.

Ganahl also has blamed Polis and Democrats who control the Legislature for easing criminal penalties before and after protests against George Floyd’s killing and racial injustice rocked Denver and other cities. Polis signed a 2019 law that made possession of 4 grams or less of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl a misdemeanor. Another law this year lowered the felony threshold to 1 gram. Polis insists tougher penalties and expanded addiction treatment options are a better approach to the crisis.

Polis made health care access a top first-term priority. Under a new state exchange, health insurance premiums initially stabilized for individuals and small firms buying insurance coverage. A state-supervised health insurance plan with annual premium reductions comes online next year. Caps on insulin co-pays and other prescription drug prices complemented the ambitious effort, though some insurers are leaving the state market.

He’s rankled the fossil fuels industry in this oil- and natural gas-producing state with a relentless pursuit of a state power grid fueled by renewables by 2040. Ganahl favors an all-of-the-above approach to energy.

Water — and its increasing scarcity throughout the West due to drought and climate change _- is a key issue in this headwaters state.

Ganahl says she’ll boost long-planned water storage projects and fight the federal government to protect Colorado’s water rights, secured by decades-old interstate compacts approved by Congress. Polis says a major second-term priority will be to tie urban planning to water availability.

“You can’t advocate disregarding treaties and compacts we honor as a state,” Polis said. “And you can’t store your way out of the drought.”

Most Coloradans vote by mail and ballots start arriving in mid-October.

By Vignesh Ramachandran, Colorado News Collaborative

Election Day is Nov. 8 this year, but since every eligible registered Colorado voter will receive a mail ballot in October, you can vote sooner.

The Colorado News Collaborative has compiled answers to frequently asked questions about the voting process in our state as we near a pivotal midterm election that includes our governorship, a U.S. Senate seat and 11 statewide ballot issues. More information about elections in our state is also available directly from the Colorado Secretary of State Office (at GoVoteColorado.gov).

Registration

How can I register to vote in Colorado?

Colorado has automatic voter registration when you interact with certain state agencies — like the Department of Motor Vehicles — and share personal information like your name, address and date of birth. So you might already be registered.

If you’re not, you can register online or mail in a paper form. Voter registration will also be available at voter service and polling centers between Oct. 24 and Election Day on Nov. 8.

Do I have to register to vote every year?

No, as long as your voter registration is active, which you can check online. “Active” means you voted in the most recent election or you recently registered or updated your registration information.

How can I look up my voter registration status?

The Colorado Secretary of State website has a lookup page online. There, you can see your voter status, party affiliation and other key info about your profile, as well as submit changes.

What if I moved within Colorado since the last election?

If you have already changed your address at the Department of Motor Vehicles, your voter registration address should be automatically updated. If that’s not the case, you can change your voter address online. (See the next question about how long you need to have lived in Colorado in order to register.)

Who is eligible to register to vote?

You must be 18 years of age or older to vote (you can actually be as young as 16 to just register). You must be a U.S. citizen, as well as a Colorado resident for at least 22 days before the election. If you’re currently unhoused/homeless, you can list any address the state considers a “home base,” including a shelter.

I have a felony conviction — can I vote in Colorado?

If you’re currently incarcerated, no, you cannot vote. But if you’re on parole, yes, you can vote. If your conviction was in the past and you’ve served your sentence, yes, you can vote.

I’m a college student in a different state who is originally from Colorado. Can I vote in Colorado?

It depends. You can either keep your Colorado residency and vote by mail as a Coloradan. Or if you establish residency (which varies by state but can include conditions such as getting a new driver’s license or living there for a certain duration) in the different state you’re going to college in, you vote there, not here. You cannot vote in two states.

I’m a college student from a different state going to school in Colorado. Can I vote in Colorado?

If you decide to establish residency here in Colorado, yes, you can vote here. But please note that you cannot vote in two states and, by establishing residence here, give up your residency elsewhere.

I’m actively serving in the military outside Colorado or living overseas. How can I vote?

Under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens and Absentee Voting Act (“UOCAVA”), you, your spouse/partner and dependents are permitted to vote and get extra time. Your mail ballot can be sent to your current mailing address 45 days before the election (so earlier than general voters) and you get extra time to send it back. It can reach Colorado as late as the eighth day after the election — Nov. 16, this year. You also have an online option to securely upload and send an image of your ballot

Voting by mail

Who gets a mail-in ballot?

All active registered voters in Colorado automatically get a mail ballot (also sometimes called an absentee ballot).

When will I receive my mail-in ballot?

Ballots begin to be mailed out to active registered voters between Oct. 17 and Oct. 21.  Counties are supposed to mail overseas and military voters ballots 45 days before the election, but those voters have an online option to upload and send an image of their ballot, as well.

Where will my ballot be sent?

Your mail ballot will be sent to the mailing address you provided during voter registration or when you updated your registration.

Do I have to vote by mail just because I get a mail ballot?

No. You can still vote in person (see FAQs on in-person voting below), but most of your fellow Coloradans choose the mail option. In 2021, about 98% of Republican, Democrat and unaffiliated voters used their mail ballot, according to the Colorado Secretary of State office.

If I don’t get a mail-in ballot, how can I request one?

You can register to vote or update your registration by Oct. 31 and can then get a mail ballot. After Oct. 31, you can pick up a ballot at your county clerk’s office or at a polling center. Also, you can also just vote in person instead. Call your specific county’s election office – or see its website – for details.

When do I have to send my mail-in ballot back by?

Your county clerk office has to receive your mail ballot by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 8 in order for it be counted. That means if you’re mailing your ballot via the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), you’ll want to put it in the mail at least a week before Election Day (ask your local USPS branch when the cutoff is for your community). If you’ve missed the cutoff to mail it, your county will have secure drop boxes (see a list on your county website, for example, here are Denver, Douglas, Jeffco and Mesa) in which you can deposit your completed ballot or you can drop it off at a polling center.

The only deadline exception is for military and overseas voters who must send it by 7 p.m. on Nov. 8, but it can reach as late as the eighth day after the election — Nov. 16, this year.

Don’t forget to sign the envelope of your mail ballot or it won’t get counted. If your signature is missing on your envelope, you’ll get a letter letting you know and you’ll have to provide your signature within eight days after Election Day. If you decide not to drop off your ballot at a drop box and want to mail your ballot via the USPS, be sure to include postage (the amount varies county to county but many counties include the postage amount in the ballot instructions). 

Are ballots available in languages other than English?

Colorado’s Secretary of State’s office has set up a multilingual hotline where interpreters can explain ballot content to voters in their preferred language. For Spanish-language voters, some counties might also provide a ballot in Spanish.

How do I learn more about the issues and candidates?

In addition to reputable local media reports, the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Colorado has put together a guide on the statewide amendments and propositions on the ballot. The state also mails all registered voters a blue, paper election booklet that explains each statewide proposition and amendment on the ballot, as well as what a “yes” or “no” vote means for each.

Voting in person

When can I vote in person?

Between Oct. 24 and Nov. 8 (except Oct. 29, Oct. 30 and Nov. 6). See the state’s election calendar for more details and deadlines.

Where do I vote in person?

Check online to see your polling place in your community.

When is Election Day?

Election Day 2022 is Nov. 8, but you don’t have to wait until that day to vote (see above). If you do decide to wait until Election Day to vote in person, polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mountain time. If there are long queues on Election Day and you’re still waiting in line at 7 p.m., you’ll still be allowed to vote. Same-day voter registration is available, if needed. Under Colorado law, if you have to vote during the workday with some conditions, your employer must pay you for up to two hours.

What should I bring to vote in-person?

You must bring an acceptable ID. If your ID lists an address, it must be in Colorado.

Are there accessible voting options for voters with special needs?

Yes. Every polling location must have at least one accessible option, such as accessible voting machines or wheelchair-accessible paths.

Election security

How secret is my vote? Does anyone know who or what I voted for?

Your ballot and whomever or whatever you voted for is totally anonymous. The only thing that is public information is your party affiliation associated with your voter registration, which you can update online.

How common is voter fraud in Colorado?

Not common at all. The conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation has documented only 16 cases of fraud in Colorado since 2005. That’s 16 cases out of millions of ballots cast.

How can I be sure my ballot is counted?

Colorado has one of the most advanced and secure voting processes in the United States. Some experts have characterized it as the “gold standard” nationally.

Colorado counties use BallotTrax, a free service for voters that allows you to track the point from which it is mailed or gathered from a collection box to when it is counted. You can get text or email notifications. Think of it like tracking an online shopping order.

After the election, bipartisan teams and county clerks across Colorado do audits with paper ballots to confirm results. “No bipartisan audit has ever found a ballot that wasn’t tabulated correctly,” according to the Colorado Secretary of State office.

Other security measures in Colorado include: background checks for election staff, bipartisan teams conducting tests to election machines, signature verification; and a partnership with the National Guard to monitor critical elections technologies, like the statewide voter registration system, for cyber threats.

Can I be a poll watcher?

Yes. Poll watchers are members of the community who volunteer to observe the conduct of an election. Call any county clerk and recorder office to find out how to get involved. You’re allowed to watch in any county, not just the one you reside in.

Is Colorado taking any steps to improve election security?

The new Colorado Election Security Act (signed into law in 2022) creates additional measures to protect our vote, including but not limited to: year-round video surveillance of voting system components, felony prosecutions for tampering with voting equipment, whistleblower protections for reports of election law breaches and a $1 million grant program for counties to upgrade security around voting equipment.

Have more questions about voting in Colorado? Email us at and put “Elections” in the subject line. You can also find more information directly from the state at GoVoteColorado.gov.

This story is brought to you by COLab, the Colorado News Collaborative, a nonprofit coalition of more than 170 newsrooms across Colorado working together to better serve the public. Learn more at https://colabnews.co