With 14 initiatives, Colorado might have this year’s longest ballot

STATE STATS

Voter makeup: Just over 4.5 million Coloradans were registered to vote by the end of September. That includes nearly 67,000 preregistered high school students who will be 18 on Election Day. As of Oct. 1, active registered Democrats numbered just over 1 million, while active Republicans were at 910,618. Almost 2 million voters are listed as unaffiliated.

Colorado was once a conservative, Republican-leaning state. As its population has grown, its voter base has shifted toward Democrats in presidential elections since 2008. Its booming population has also boosted its representation in the Electoral College. It went from nine votes in 2020 to 10 in 2024.

Voting: Colorado automatically registers voters when they apply for driver’s licenses. Residents can also register online with ID. Colorado is one of 11 states that allow voters to register without a photo ID if they provide other documents like bank statements, along with a written affidavit.

Colorado’s constitution already prohibits noncitizen voting, but election officials do not check citizenship status when residents register to vote. According to the Colorado County Clerks Association, election officials routinely check various databases, including driver’s licenses, to verify voter eligibility.

All Colorado voters can vote by mail or absentee ballot. Mail-in voting requires registration by October 28, but in-person registration can happen up to Election Day. Mailed ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on election night to be counted.

Significant election changes are on the ballot this year. Initiative 310 (now on the ballot as Proposition 131) would create “all candidate” primaries and institute ranked-choice voting. In June, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed a law that hog-ties Initiative 310 by creating strict rules for when it can go into effect. If Initiative 310 passes, the law would put the initiative on hold until local governments pass similar changes to their election laws.

PRESIDENTIAL

On Super Tuesday in March, former President Donald Trump won the Colorado Republican primary with 63 percent of more than 875,000 votes cast. Nikki Haley came away with 33 percent, and the remainder went to other candidates.

On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden won 82 percent of nearly 580,000 ballots cast. Nine percent of the votes were cast as “noncommitted.” After Biden dropped out of the race, Colorado’s 86 delegates to the Democratic National Convention all cast their ballots for Vice President Kamala Harris.

In 2020, Joe Biden carried the state with 55 percent of the vote over Donald Trump’s nearly 42 percent out of more than 3 million votes—a state record.

U.S. HOUSE

Colorado has eight congressional districts. The Cook Political Report predicts that four are expected to remain Democratic, while two are solidly Republican. The remaining two are competitive.

• District 3, covering western and southern Colorado, is open following GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert’s decision to run for Colorado’s 4th District out east, where she has a higher chance of winning reelection. The Cook Political Report predicts Republican attorney Jeff Hurd, 45, will likely win against Democratic businessman Adam Frisch. Frisch narrowly lost a challenge to Boebert for the 3rd District seat in 2022.

• In District 8, north of Denver, Democratic freshman Rep. Yadira Caraveo faces a tight reelection race against Republican State House Rep. Gabe Evans, 38. District 8 was created after redistricting in 2021, and Caraveo narrowly beat conservative state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer in 2022.

JUDICIAL ELECTIONS

Three state Supreme Court justices are up for retention elections. The Colorado governor appoints justices to two-year terms, after which they stand for a yes-no retention vote for a 10-year term. Justices must receive 55 percent or more of the votes cast to retain their seats.

Justice Maria Berkenkotter is up for her first retention election, while Monica Marquez and Brian Boatright are running for their second terms.

All seven of Colorado’s justices were appointed by Democratic governors. In December 2023, the state Supreme Court issued a 4-3 ruling in favor of barring Trump from the 2024 Republican primary ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned that ruling in March.

BALLOT MEASURES

Coloradoans will vote on a record-setting 14 statewide ballot measures. Seven are proposed amendments to the state constitution, five are citizen-initiated proposed amendments to state statutes, and two are legislatively referred state statutes. Those two statutes deal with tax code questions related to sports gambling and firearm taxes that require voter approval. The other issues run the gamut from a proposed amendment to add a right to school choice to the constitution to a proposal to remove language about marriage being the union of one man and one woman. Here are a few of the most significant ballot issues:

• Amendment 79 would establish a state constitutional right to abortion and repeal laws that ban public funding of abortion.

• Amendment 80 would establish a state constitutional right to school choice, including private schools and homeschooling.

• Amendment J would remove language from the state constitution that protects the traditional definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman. Because the proposal would amend rather than add language, only a simple majority is required for this proposal to succeed. California and Hawaii both have similar proposals on the ballot this year.

• Proposition 131 would replace party primaries with top-four primary elections, where all candidates would appear on the same ballot and the top four would advance to the general election, with a winner selected through ranked-choice voting. Five other states use top-two primaries, and Idaho also has top-four primaries. Alaska is giving voters a chance to repeal ranked-choice voting in the state.

Dig deeper:

• Listen to Leo Briceno’s report on campaign fundraising and Gabe Evans’s race against Yadira Caraveo.

• Read Carolina Lumetta’s report on the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Colorado’s high court decision to remove Donald Trump from the primary ballot.

• Listen to the news team’s Washington Wednesday segment of The World and Everything in It for an overview of ballot measure issues including ranked-choice voting and abortion.

Visit the WORLD Election Center 2024 to follow our state-by-state coverage between now and November.