If you are a registered voter in Colorado, your ballot is arriving in your mailbox this week. Before you fill it out, we want to ask you to do two things: get informed from sources you can trust, and trust what you can verify about how Colorado runs its elections.
This year's ballot is long, and it matters. On November 3, Coloradans will choose a governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, a U.S. senator, all eight members of Congress, and state legislators. Many of us will also decide ballot measures, judicial retentions, and local races for school boards, county offices, and special districts. Those down-ballot choices often shape our daily lives more directly than the races that dominate the headlines.
A vote is most powerful when it reflects what a voter actually wants. That means knowing what each measure would do, not just what its ads say. It means knowing where candidates stand, not just which slogans we have seen most often. For more than a century, the League of Women Voters has believed that an informed voter is the foundation of a healthy democracy. We still do.
Getting good information has never been easier, or harder. Our feeds are crowded with misleading, out-of-context, or simply false claims, and AI-generated content makes it harder to tell the difference. The good news is that reliable, nonpartisan sources are free and close at hand, helping voters find trustworthy information easily.
- VOTE411.org, the League's voter guide, lets you enter your address and see candidates' answers to the same questions, side by side, in their own words.
- The state Blue Book, mailed to every household, gives a plain-language summary of each statewide ballot measure along with arguments for and against.
- GoVoteColorado.gov lets you check your registration, update your address, and find drop boxes and voting centers.
- Your county clerk's office is the authority on your local ballot, deadlines, and voting locations.
- LWVCO's ballot-measure fact sheets explain what each statewide measure would and would not do, without telling you how to vote.
When you see a surprising claim about voting, pause before you share it. Check with your county clerk or the Secretary of State. If a message tells you the rules have changed, a deadline has moved, or you can vote by text, it is wrong. Election officials, not social media posts, set the rules, so verifying with official sources helps ensure accurate information.
We also want every Coloradan to know this: our elections are safe, secure, and accurate. That is not a matter of faith. The system is built to be checked at every step, with transparent procedures and verification processes that ensure trustworthiness.
Every Colorado vote is cast on a paper ballot, which creates a permanent record that can be recounted and audited. Signatures on returned ballot envelopes are verified, and if there is a problem, voters are notified and given the chance to fix it. Teams of election judges from different political parties handle ballots, never one person alone. Drop boxes are under 24-hour video surveillance, and chain-of-custody logs track ballots from pickup to counting.
You may notice armed or unarmed security officers at some postal facilities. That has nothing to do with the election. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service says it has deployed these contract guards since last year to supplement its own Postal Police Officers. They protect the mail and the people who work in those buildings, just as guards do at hospitals, schools and other public buildings. Their presence should not discourage anyone from mailing a ballot.
Before Election Day, counties publicly test their equipment for accuracy. After the election, Colorado runs a risk-limiting audit, in which bipartisan audit boards compare a random sample of paper ballots against the machine count. Colorado was the first state to conduct one statewide, in 2017, and has done so in every election since. Then bipartisan canvass boards in each county certify the results.
The system also catches its own mistakes, in the open. On October 6, the Colorado Department of State and county clerks found that Ballot Issue 7A had landed on more ballots than it should have in Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas and Weld counties. That is the Front Range Passenger Rail District's sales tax question to fund the Colorado Connector, the planned passenger train known as CoCo. The district had not clearly told counties about its updated boundaries after a 2026 change in law. The state has directed counties to count 7A votes only from voters who live inside the district. No ballots are processed until October 19, so no votes in that contest have been tallied.
If you received 7A, there is nothing you need to do. Vote the ballot you were sent. If you live outside the district, every other choice on your ballot will count; only your vote on 7A will be set aside.
You can see this for yourself. Sign up for BallotTrax through GoVoteColorado.gov to get a text or email when your ballot is mailed, received, and counted. And much of this work happens in public view: League members observe these processes across the state, and any Coloradan can ask their county clerk how to watch.
So here is our ask. Take time with your ballot. Read about every race and measure, not just the top of the ticket. Rely on sources that show their work. And vote with confidence.
If you are not yet registered, or have moved, you can register online at GoVoteColorado.gov through October 26 and still receive a ballot by mail. After that, you can register and vote in person at any voter service and polling center through Election Day; centers open October 19. Ballots must be received, not postmarked, by 7 p.m. on November 3, so after October 21, skip the mail and use a drop box or vote in person.
If you see or experience anything election-related that feels uncomfortable or wrong, whether at a drop box, a voting center, or in a message you receive, call the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683). Trained volunteers will support you and ensure your concerns are taken seriously.
Democracy works when we show up informed and trust what we can verify. We hope to see you at the ballot box.
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Beth Hendrix is executive director and Mary Parker is board president of the League of Women Voters of Colorado, a nonpartisan organization with 20 local Leagues and more than 2,300 members statewide. The League never supports or opposes candidates or political parties.