Voting in Colorado
Here are voter guides I used to inform my voting decisions. I wrote some personal notes on issues I struggled with or felt particularly strong about. Hope this helps. Also, if you find yourself running into paywalls, it's a good reminder that paying for good, local journalism is important and worth it. This research from reporters does not come free. I've started subscribing to the Denver Post and Daily Camera in the last year. In addition, I subscribe to High Country News, NYTimes, National Geographic, Trail Runner, & Ultrarunning Magazine. But I digress. Paying for LOCAL journalism is worth it. I'm sick of reading 'news' on Twitter. Go democracy!
Colorado Working Families & Racial Justice Guide
State Senator Steve Fenberg's guide - progressive, former organizer, current Majority Leader in Colorado's State Senate. Effective climate change advocate.
Boulder County Democrats Guide
Eric Budd's guide - progressive, well-read and extremely engaged in Boulder politics.
Boulder Weekly - an extremely thorough guide, includes guides for measures outside the city of Boulder.
For any of the issues I don't link a specific article to, please refer to the Ballotpedia pro/con guide, read the guides above, or google it. A climate-specific version of Ballotpedia's guide can be found here via POW Action Fund. Just type in your address and it will give the "blue book" for your ballot.
VOTE
President - Biden. Please.
Senator - Hickenlooper, honestly this is just as do-or-die for Colorado and our country as the Presidential election. Cory Gardner does not care about Coloradans. I see this vote as a referendum specifically against Gardner. If you enjoy outdoor recreation, the fact that Gardner has not supported the CORE Act is reason enough to vote him out.
Rep District 2 - Neguse, he's an incredible Rep. There are zero reasons to not vote for him.
*with a plea to those in District 3 (Western Slope, including Steamboat Springs, Grand Junction & Telluride) to PLEASE vote for Diane Mitch Busch.
Regent for CU District 2 - Callie Rennison
State Senator District 18 - Steve Fenberg
State Rep District 10 - Edie Hooton
Judges - all retain, but you can check this site that comments on performance. If you live in one of the two areas where judges didn't receive positive recommendations, I'd recommend doing some critical reading and asking trusted sources in your area. The full Denver Post article on this is here.
County Commissioner District 1 - Claire Levy
County Commissioner District 2 - Marta Loachamin
Amendment B - Yes
Amendment C - Yes
Amendment 76 - No
Amendment 77 - No, I don't support increasing gambling limits without putting money towards helping those with gambling addictions.
Prop EE - No. I do not support sin taxes that don't use some of that tax money to help folks with addiction issues. I understand that these taxes would put over $100m into education around tobacco, which is banking that the next generations won't become addicted and this would also fund future generations childhood education. That all sounds wonderful, ideal really. But why should the cig smoking population pay for all of that? I wish Dems would put more money and effort into repealing TABOR so then we could have proper, progressive taxes for all, not just on products like cigs. If I were addicted to e-cigs, I'd buy them, regardless of the cost. Let's regulate e-cigs via our state congress since we know they're problematic for people, especially kids. I know this is a vote against taxes that would fund childhood education, I just believe that the cigarette-smoking population shouldn't be the ones to pay for that. We should be funding childhood education, but not from sin taxes. Read pro/con here and the Boulder Weekly's 'no' recommendation and Working Families 'no' recommendation. I should add that the list of people, mostly highly respected Democrats, who support this is very long.
Prop 113 - Yes, this would add our state to a growing list of states that supports election of President by popular vote. If passed, we'd join the states that commit to awarding all of their state's electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote nationwide once the agreement is binding. It'll be binding when participating states represent more than half of all electoral votes, which is 270. If passed, we'd be at 196.
Prop 114 - Yes, it's what the scientists support. Although I don't necessarily agree with leaving this up to voters. I don't think it should have come to a ballot measure, but here it is and the majority of biologists and conservation groups support this.
Prop 115 - NO! Abortions must remain the choice of women. Don't even fucking get me started.
Prop 116 - No
Prop 117 - No
Prop 118 - Yes
Boulder:
2B - Yes, I helped collect signatures for this measure. It's to ensure people facing evictions have legal counsel. Because who the fuck who's getting evicted would be able to afford counsel? And landlords almost always can. Let's help even this playing field. Read more from local reporter Shay Castle who's been following this from the beginning.
2C - Yes. This is so controversial in Boulder, but I'm admittedly siding with the path of least resistance here because I'm desperate for action towards reducing emissions. We need to actually start our path to zero emissions and voting no would delay that path even more. I recommend reading up on this. Daily Camera editorial opinion in favor. Boulder Beat (Shay Castle) pro/con in depth article. But, please note the long list of respected environmentalists who are voting against 2C.
2D - Yes, it's contingent on 2C passing.
2E - Yes. I collected signatures for this ballot and think it's archaic that we don't directly elect our mayor. Currently, our nine-person city council chooses mayor amongst themselves. Sure our major doesn't have a lot of special responsibilities as one might think, but the mayor still sets city council agenda and has some extra sway than other city council members. And city counsel is elected in odd years, when voter turnout is considerably lower (and wealthier and more white). Let's directly elect our mayor like almost every other town of our size in Colorado and do it in an even year when turnout is higher! Also, ranked choice voting makes sense.
2F - Yes