In Colorado, there is an electoral eclipse approaching. Not all states have these many things lined up for the voters in the same year. Numerous consequential state and state-national leadership roles are teed up for a decision on the November elections. All that, in addition to several ballot initiatives.
The number of decisions being voted on during the elections means a lot is at stake for how government does things in Colorado.
The state’s economic uniqueness and its citizens variegated but intense philosophies magnify the discussion for the upcoming midterms.
Some Colorado voting particularities, like the mass mailing of ballots, requested or not to all citizens, add some wrinkles to the process. Interestingly, Colorado also has a “semi-closed” primary, allowing supposedly unaffiliated voters to give input on candidates selected by the major parties as they surely did this past spring.
All that having been considered, Colorado citizens partake in non-presidential elections in comparatively high numbers.
Studying for November Elections: Voter Participation
Midterm elections get fewer voters to the polls than presidential elections, according to a bipartisan-expert voter’s guide from Reader’s Digest. But Colorado is different. Princeton’s United States Elections Project confirms Colorado’s data on voter participation: the state has one of the nation’s highest voter turnouts for midterms. 60% in 2018. This comparatively tall figure was similar for 2014 as well.
The Breakdown: Short List of Candidates, Offices and Issues for the Colorado Midterms
- Governor – First-term incumbent Jared Polis for the Democrats faces Republican party challenger Heidi Ganahl.
- US Senate – Democrat Michael Bennet vs. Republican challenger Joe O’Dea.
- US Congress – Redistricting from 2020 census data added new people to the House of Representatives; Colorado now has eight members. Every district is facing a vote.
- A few state senate and state congressional locations are being challenged.
- Several recall measures were initiated during this election period. These included recalls for offices ranging from school district leaders up to an effort to recall Gov Polis.
- State Executive
- There are races for appeals court seats and for certain municipal governance offices.
- State ballot measure proposals include numerous tax items, alcohol sales, housing actions and legalization of the medically supervised use of psychedelics.
- Education roles including some state-elected college regents.
Ecology, Economy and Elections
Persistent inflation–a problem nationally and especially for everyday consumer goods–is part of the election day discussion.
As inflation hurts Democrats right now, there is little current non-partisan data in the establishment news media regarding it; it’s hard to find. Yet, a state inflation tracker by Republicans in congress has inflation at 15% (sic) for Colorado. That’s from January of last year to this past August. Also, the center-right Common-Sense Institute out of Greenwood Village crunched the data on Colorado inflation.
In a report dated Jun 10 of this year, they said: “The average Colorado household has spent $5,880 more since 2020 because of inflation.”
The perennial issue of Colorado’s ecology balanced with its economy is part of this election too. The cost of gasoline is a primary example. That price ties in with the approaching EPA penalty for ozone problems in the Denver area.
Polis pledged, soon after the election, to meet stringent EPA standards when the agency had given Colorado a temporary waiver. Absent that waiver, the Greater Denver area will have the mandated summertime sale of a costlier mix of gasoline. Polis is now pleading with the DC agency for another release as high gas prices continue during an election season.
But some issues on the ballot are less quantifiable.
Safety
Regarding crime, law enforcement and criminal penalties increasingly come under the influence of lawmakers nationwide. In some cases, decisions about criminal justice go directly to a ballot instead of to representatives, making criminal justice more of a voting issue than in the past.
A historical example of votes or legislation determining criminal justice policy in Colorado is the decriminalizing of certain controlled substances (and, incidentally, that’s on the ballot again this year).
Polis has also signed numerous criminal justice bills into law in his one term, adding potential to his political accountability.
Rising crime rates and the relation to overall lowering quality-of-life is a concern. The Maverick Observer covered how Colorado recently got the dubious distinction of the runner-up (technically, Washington DC was higher) for the state with the highest rate of car theft.
The heightened Southwestern US crisis of fentanyl and other drugs is part of the election discussion. In May, a state law was passed and signed by Polis that essentially provided subsidized support to accommodate safer fentanyl use while also modifying criminal penalties for possession. The safer use philosophy is called “harm reduction” by its supporters.
Voting Conscience
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade this year, the abortion rights and right-to-life debate is now primarily a state matter. No direct policy regarding abortion is up for a vote in Colorado, but it’s been a topic, nonetheless.
This year, Polis signed a hardline, pro-abortion bill into state law, while Heidi Ganahl is on record as pro-life with a moderate range of exceptions.
All in all, many dicey discussions exist for all candidates in their respective offices.
Freethinking but all Freewheeling Electoral Process?
Unaffiliated voters, by law, are required to have access to certain party meetings where state candidate selections are made. That come-as-you-are, bottom-up primary election system in Colorado makes election races a boon for freethinking voters. But can also open the process to secret bad-faith influencers from an opposing party. Another vast enfranchisement-related measure was a law passed in 2017 which gave several thousand non-incarcerated Colorado residents with felony records the right to vote.
As for universal mail-in voting, many states, including Colorado, have corresponding concerns over possible fraud. The state’s Republicans were concerned about vote security in the 2013 passage of a mail-in ballot law; long before both parties started throwing darts over electoral suspicion in 2016 and 2020.
Unfortunately, reflexive, incantational charges of “election denial,” mainly from Democrats, including establishment news media, have more or less precluded any discussion about mail-in or drop-box voting security. Punishing even the consideration of evidence has become almost the norm in major social media and publishing forums.
Persons in the 38th State Show Up to Vote
Colorado faces a lot of high rankings.
One of the most accessible states to vote in. But also, some of the highest inflation. The highest rate of car theft. One of the nation’s broadest abortion policies.
These big numbers and high rankings will matter when it comes to governance and political matters in this fall’s election.
What government can practically do at the state level depends on countless factors. But the record shows that Coloradans–in numbers few other states can match–will show up and they will vote either way.
