Alexandra & Jonathan's 2024 Colorado Voter Guide
Non-Partisan Resources
Call the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline or https://866ourvote.org/ for any problems voting
Colorado Secretary of State voter information
Official Denvervotes.org which includes information on Denver candidates and ballot measures
The official “blue book” ballot measure guide (the printed version only includes ballot measures with a fiscal impact so be sure to go online as well)
League of Women Voters ballot measure guide
Women’s Foundation of Colorado Womanifesto ballot measure guide
Colorado Politics voter guide
The Bell Policy Center voter guide and Colorado Fiscal Institute voter guide
Calendar
October 9: Ballots begin to be mailed
October 14: McNichols Civic Center Building Voter Service and Polling Center (VSPC) opens; Other VSPC sites open throughout the month
November 5: Election Day. Ballots must be in a dropbox by 7:00pm. Voters must be in line by 7:00pm for in-person voting.
Locate drop boxes and VSPC sites here.
Make a plan to vote! Do you like to vote as soon as you receive your ballot? Wait until the weekend before? Vote alone or with your family? Decide when and how you will vote and put it on your calendar. We vote as soon as we can and vote as a family. Then we take our ballots to the drop box by Torchy’s Tacos in Northfield and get tacos for dinner!
And note that the sooner you return your ballot, the sooner the bombardment stops! Once campaigns know you have already voted, they will take you out of their contact universe so you will no longer receive phone calls, mail, etc.
Vote Save America also has a cool tool to create your own ballot guide.
Help your friends register or remember to vote
If Taylor Swift can post about voting, so can you! Your voice matters, so let’s make it count in the next election! Feel free edit and share this on your socials.
Hey friends! Have you moved since the last election? Need to check your voter registration status? Head over to vote.org for info in all 50 states. And make a plan to vote -- put it on your calendar and bring a friend.
Candidate Recommendations
President and Vice-President: Harris-Walz. Obviously.
Congressional District 1 (all of Denver): Diana DeGette
Congressional District 8 (Adams, Weld): Yadira Caraveo
State Board of Education: not up this cycle in District 1 (Denver)
Regent of the University of Colorado (at-large): Elliott Hood
State Supreme Court (retention election):
Maria Berkenkotter - yes
Brian Boatright - yes
Monica Márquez - yes
Court of Appeals (retention vote):
Stephanie Dunn - yes
Jerry N. Jones - yes
W. Eric Kuhn - yes
Gilbert M. Román - yes
Timothy J. Schutz - yes
All justices above were approved with Meets Performance Standards by the Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation
State Senate (33, all of Central Park): James Coleman
Not sure what district you live in? Look it up!
State House (7, Central Park north of I-70): Jennifer Bacon
State House (8, Central Park south of I-70): Lindsey Gilcrest
Not sure what district you live in? Look it up!
District Attorney (2nd Judicial District, all of Denver): John Walsh
Regional Transportation
Not sure what district you live in? Look it up! (B & C cover most of Denver and are not up this cycle)
District Court Judge (2nd Judicial District, all of Denver; retention election):
Mark T. Bailey - yes
Adam J. Espinosa - yes
Jay S. Grant - yes
Marie A. Moses - yes
Alex C. Myers - yes
Anita M. Schutte - yes
Stephanie Scoville - yes
Demetria E. Trujillo - yes
County Court Judge - Denver
David Blackett - yes
Kelly C Cherry - yes
Beth Faragher - yes
Reneé A. Goble - yes
Isabel Pallares - yes
Nicole M. Rodarte - yes
Andre L Rudolph - yes
Barry A. Schwartz - yes
Fran Simonet - yes
Theresa Spahn - yes
All justices above were approved with Meets Performance Standards by the Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation
Ballot Measure Recommendations - Statewide
CPR: Here are the 14 questions on Colorado’s ballot this November
Colorado Politics: Colorado's 14 ballot measures include abortion, hunting, ranked choice voting
Amendment G: Allow more disabled veterans to access a state property tax exemption. Yes.
Amendment H: Setting up a judicial discipline board. Yes.
Amendment I: No bail for defendants in first degree murder cases. No. This is one of those measures that sounds good but is actually bad. Murder cases take a notoriously long time to get through the courts. I don’t like the idea of suspects sitting in jail for potentially years.
Amendment J: Remove the same-sex marriage ban from the state constitution. Yes! This ensures that Colorado can continue to allow same-sex marriages even if the US Supreme Court overturns the Obergefell decision.
Amendment K: Earlier deadlines to set the ballot. Yes. Moves the deadline by only a week to allow election administrators more time to print ballots.
Initiative 89: Enshrine legal abortion in the state constitution. Big yes! This codifies abortion rights into the state constitution; it needs 55% to pass.
Initiative 91: Ban the sport hunting of big cats. Yes.
Initiative 112: Parole eligibility for people convicted of violent crimes. No. This is another one that sounds good but is actually bad. We already have a law requiring 75% of a sentence. Why be more punitive if someone has demonstrated remorse and good behavior?
Initiative 138: Constitutional right to school choice. No. This would just strip more funding from cash-strapped public schools and direct it to private schools.
Initiative 145: Creating the position of Veterinary Professional Associate. Yes.
Initiative 157: $350 million in state funding for law enforcement. No. Yet another sounds good but is BAD. This dedicates a huge proportion of the state budget to law enforcement without specifying a revenue source. So that’s means less discretionary budget for everything else when we already have a $600 million budget shortfall. In other words, less money to allow the legislature to tweak the budget from year to year to respond to current needs. They can allocate plenty of money to law enforcement without this earmark.
Initiative 310: All candidate primaries and ranked-choice voting. No. This is super complicated and we have friends working on both sides. We are generally in favor of ranked choice voting (RCV) and are open to a “top-four” primary. However, this measure is being pushed by one specific donor, former DaVita CEO Kent Thiry. Despite Al’s day job, we do not like when one donor buys an election -- be it a candidate or ballot measure. While Thiry has backed RCV in other states, it is widely assumed he is pushing this measure to run for Governor as an independent and/or to push other candidates to run as independents because Republicans can no longer win statewide. The state legislature passed a bill that would delay RCV implementation and would likely need to intervene again if this measure passes. RCV has been shown to help women candidates and gives third-party and long-shot candidates a chance while helping to depolarize candidate appeals. But it also tends to favor the most heavily financed candidates, allowing them to game the system by lifting up less electable rivals. We want to see additional cities adopt RCV (like Denver; a few cities including Boulder and Fort Collins have implemented it for local elections) and other states (currently only in Alaska and Maine) along with other campaign finance reforms before we go statewide here. Learn more: https://voterrightsco.org/faqs
Proposition JJ: Allow the state to keep all of the taxes it’s collected from sports betting. Yes
Proposition KK: A new excise tax on gun and ammunition sales. Yes. Although we are generally against single-issue taxes, we like the idea of sticking it to gun dealers to raise money for mental health and gun violence prevention programs. This is an innovative idea that other states are also exploring.
Ballot Measure Recommendations - Denver
Westword: Twelve Proposals Make Denver's November Ballot
Denver Housing Sales Tax Insider's Guide
Ballot Issue 2Q: Denver Health Sales Tax Increase. Yes. Establish a 0.34% sales tax to fund Denver Health, which provides around $140 million in uncompensated care to Denver area residents every year. This is a crucial safety net for thousands of low-income residents.
Ballot Issue 2R: Affordable Housing Sales Tax Increase. Yes. This 0.5% sales tax increase (8.81% up to 9.31%) to fund the creation and preservation of affordable housing in Denver, generating around $100 million annually for affordable housing efforts. Again, we generally do not support one-off, single issue taxes but this is an urgent issue for Denver and the region.
Referred Question 2V: Binding Arbitration for Firefighters. Yes. This has been endorsed by the firefighters union.
Referred Question 2W: Elected Official Salary Approval. Yes. If we want good people to run for office and serve, we need to pay them. This would automatically increase salaries using the same formula that currently calculates raises every four years based on the consumer price index and other raises citywide instead of requiring the council to approve their own salary increases.
Referred Question 2S: Human Rights Cabinet Agency. Yes. Make the existing Department for Human Rights and Community Partnerships into a cabinet agency. This would make the executive director of the department a member of the mayor's cabinet, allowing that position to help create general administrative policies for the city.
Referred Question 2T: Citizenship for Police and Firefighters. Yes. Remove a requirement that people applying to be Denver police officers or firefighters be United States citizens.
Referred Question 2U: Collective Bargaining for City Employees. Yes. Give all city employees the right to unionize beginning in 2026, expanding collective bargaining rights for city employees beyond firefighters, police officers and sheriff deputies.
Citizen-Initiated Ordinance 308: Fur Ban. Meh, no. Prohibit the manufacture, distribution, display, sale and trade of most animal fur products in Denver beginning in July 2025. Exemptions include for use for cultural purposes by members of Native American tribes; or made from used fur or bought/sold by thrift stores, pawn shops and nonprofits. It would likely impact the Western National Stock Show sales. This was put on the ballot by Pro-Animal Future and feels like a solution in search of a problem.
Citizen-Initiated Ordinance 309: Slaughterhouse Ban. Meh, no. There is only one slaughterhouse in Denver and it employs over 2,700 people. This was also put on the ballot by Pro-Animal Future and feels like a solution in search of a problem.
Ballot Issue 4A: Denver Public Schools Bond. Yes. Approve a $975 million bond to pay for maintenance and other projects.
Ballot Issue 6A: Denver Downtown Development Authority. Yes. Increase the city's debt by $570 million for the Downtown Development Authority to use on public facilities, infrastructure and other improvements. This does not increase taxes and expands the development footprint to other downtown areas.
Ballot Issue 7A: Regional Transportation District. Yes. Allow RTD to keep the tax revenue it collects by making the transit agency indefinitely exempt from the limitations of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) instead of refunding any excess to taxpayers. TABOR is dumb.
Volunteer Opportunities
Colorado Democratic Party: this includes Harris-Walz on down. You can knock doors, phone bank, text bank, or attend in-person events.
Rep. Dr. Yadira Caraveo, running in the 8th congressional district, has the most competitive race in the state; it is a top 10 race nationally. She was first elected in 2022, making this her first re-election. This is a true 50-50 district and she won by less than 2,000 votes last cycle. Here are opportunities to volunteer with her campaign. She can also use any and all donations right up to Election Day.
Coloradans for Reproductive Freedom/Yes on 79 would also love volunteers and donations.
You can also volunteer with Planned Parenthood Votes Colorado (Al is on the board!).
If you have never knocked doors or phone/text banked before, don’t worry! A) It’s fun. B) You’re not trying to convince Trump voters to switch to Harris. You will primarily be talking to less likely voters (called low propensity voters) who are inclined to vote for Democrats/progressive causes and convincing them to turn out. Each campaign will train you on what to do and what to say. Most people aren’t home, don’t answer the door, or don’t pick up the phone. So you’re mainly just taking a nice walk and passing out literature or spending a lot of time looking at a tool called the predictive dialer. But these are the most impactful ways to increase turnout for the candidates and causes we care about; even if you only have 2-3 conversations, those add up across all of the volunteer shifts!
There are also other ways to help like writing letters or postcards to swing state voters and posting content on social media (follow @kamalahq on all channels or repost from other candidates or causes you support).