This blog post is an iteration of a blog post that has appeared before, most recently in October 2022. This blog may be updated as more resources become available. This blog was first published on September 16, 2024 and last updated on October 21, 2024.
Every year, I think life on Earth cannot possibly get any weirder, but it keeps doing just that, including in 2024. To deal, I have two opposing coping mechanisms. The first is avoidance where I mostly don't look at the news. I think saying ignorance is "bliss" is a pretty hyperbolic, and while I'm embarrassed to admit shutting out the news, it's done well for my mental health/not developing a habit of grinding my teeth.
However, my other coping mechanism is doing as much research as I can stand into ballot issues so I'm not just bluffing my way through a ballot that contains language that could be misleading. Almost every adult I know is mostly short on time, sleep, patience, attention span, and inner peace. Our ballots seem to get longer every year, and I know that trying to do all the fact-finding at once will become another stressor.
Research takes time, even for those of us who have "professional" research skills. And because life doesn't stop for us to fill out our ballots, I try to observe some specific practices to save time on researching.
I hope the following pointers are helpful to you as we work together to make our voices heard.
Know key dates
The big one: Election Day itself is November 5, 2024. County Clerks must receive mailed and dropped off ballots by 7 p.m. on that day (unless you're overseas or in the military). In-person voters must be in the polling place line by the 7 p.m. deadline to complete their vote.
The Secretary of State has a lot of statewide voting information, and they also maintain an elections calendar. Dates of note:
- Every registered voter in Colorado automatically receives a mail ballot. The first day they can be mailed is Friday, October 11 and the last is the following Friday, October 18.
- Early voting locations and drop boxes will open on Monday, October 21.
- Monday, October 28 is the last day to register to vote and still receive a mail ballot.
Please note that while Secretary of State's Office coordinates elections statewide, your local County Clerk will be responsible for issuing and collecting ballots. Colorado's 64 counties also each have their own elections office with local information.
Additionally, note that some addresses in the metro area list Denver as the city but are not located in Denver County. (For example, the library systems in both Arapahoe and Adams Counties have locations like this.) If you're not sure which county will issue your ballot, visit GoVoteColorado.gov and look at your voter registration. The County & District Information tab will list every jurisdiction in which you vote, such as your state legislators, local school district, city council, etc.
Check your registration
In Colorado, all eligible voters may register to vote until the polls close on Election Day, but if you register on or after October 28 you will have to vote in person.
Fun fact: in 2021, Colorado enacted Automatic Voter Registration, so the DMV may have registered you. Visit GoVoteColorado.gov to ensure your registration information is correct.
Those who are not yet 18 years old but will be by Election Day may preregister to vote (and others can preregister for future elections starting at age 16).
Know about accessible elections
Many facets of Colorado voting are able to accommodate voters with disabilities. Here are some important points.
The Colorado Talking Book Library records audio versions of the Ballot Information Booklet as both a digital download and as a cartridge sent by mail to CTBL patrons. This year's has been released.
This FAQ from the Secretary of State has a lot of information about accommodations in place, including ADA compliance at in-person polling places, voting machines with accessible and adaptive technology, and more. You can also contact your county with specific concerns about accessing your right to vote.
If a paper ballot is inaccessible to a voter, they may be eligible for an electronic ballot. Learn more from the Secretary of State.
Get information about the election
The Secretary of State's Elections page is a trove of information about the election process, including FAQs that can provide details on casting ballots as a person who is overseas, a college student, justice-involved, and more. Those registered in Denver County voters can visit denvervotes.org. This can all be a lot to remember, but DPL does have a handy Elections topic page that links to several of the resources mentioned here.
Research Your Ballot
And now we head into murkier informational territory, where voters will have to start making judgment calls on candidates and ballot issues. One very handy resource is the Ballot Information Booklet (aka "the Blue Book"), which is published by Colorado's Legislative Council Staff and sent out automatically by mail ahead of the election (2024's has already been sent out). The Blue Book includes ballot language, fiscal impact, and issue analysis, including a very handy pro and con rundown of each statewide ballot measure. It is available in print in Spanish. The Colorado Talking Book Library also offers a recorded audio version. Recordings for have been released both online and in audio cartridge formats.
Note that the online Blue Book does not contain judge evaluations. Those may be found in full online at the Colorado Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation website.
Your home county may also send its own booklet for local ballot measures. Denver's 2024 guides have been published in both English and Spanish and online versions are available on the Clerk and Recorder's website. The sample Denver ballot is also available.
For ongoing news coverage, as well as more opinion-oriented stories, Colorado has many free news sources that typically publish voter guides, fact checks, and take deep looks at ballot issues and candidates. These will likely be our richest resources for in-depth coverage of all things Colorado. Here is a list of resources, and now that October has arrived the information is starting to flow in. This blog will be updated (last updated on October 16), but I also encourage folks to check and explore resources to figure out which resources you find the most useful or trustworthy.
- Colorado Sun's Election 2024 topic is already live, and so is their 2024 Colorado Voter Guide, including links to major debates.
- Colorado Public Radio has published their comprehensive voting guide for all Colorado, including links to coverage by affiliates who focus on other regions like Denver and Southern Colorado. CPR's guide has information on elected officials like judges, the Colorado State Board of Education, and the University of Colorado Regents, and they also have issues-based content. Explore CPR's Elections topic to search for in-depth stories on this year's election that were published ahead of the voter guide.
- CPR also owns Denverite, whose voter guide is also now live. Denverite's Government & Politics topic that may come in handy as well for further searching.
- Remember that TV stations' presence aren't limited to just TV! 9News has put up their one-stop shop voting guide in addition to its stories on politics, some of which pertain to elections. CBS Colorado usually releases a voting guide and political coverage, including a series called Reality Check by political reporter Shaun Boyd. Denver7 has their own voter guide and election coverage as well. KDVR (for us longtime Coloradans, it's Fox 31 jointly operating with Channel 2) has an elections topic and this rundown on their coverage of specific stories.
Of course, not all news information sources are free. Many news consumers are shut out by subscription requirements for major national papers and our very own Denver Post. However, DPL cardholders can use our Newspapers topic page to access a treasure trove of papers through our databases collection, including both Denver and Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and more. And for the past year or so, we've been able to offer not just New York Times in database form, but we now offer New York Times Online, i.e., what you see on nytimes.com. For those who prefer analog, some branches also receive physical copies of newspapers, so call your library branch to confirm their subscription.
One more thing: a lot of this information is going to be redundant, and you may not find that going through every major network's voter guide is super productive. With so much information available at our fingertips, sometimes we have to see where where information converges and diverges from different sources to help us decide how we want to cast our ballots. Over time, we start to develop sources that we trust. More on that below.
Beware of bad information
The other side of the coin to seeking out information is that you have to avoid internalizing bad information. One of the things that I've developed as a library specialty is learning about misinformation, and I regret to inform you that misinformation is absolutely everywhere, my friends. Our Research Services department maintains a Spotting Misinformation page fact-checkers, media literacy organizations, relevant databases, and more.
Reading a whole article/webpage/whatever and then evaluating it is time-consuming and can muddle your mind. Personally, I love a handy skills-based approach that has a nice acronym. Professor Mike Caulfield, who works at Washington State University Vancouver and with University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public, developed SIFT, which can help you make quick, informed judgements to decide whether or not even engaging with an information source is worth your time. SIFT stands for:
- Stop - Feeling strong emotions may mean that you're looking at something misleading.
- Investigate - Look into the resource publishing the information to evaluate biases.
- Find trusted coverage - See if there's a consensus about this information across resources.
- Trace claims back to their source - Look at quotes, studies, etc., in its original context.
If you want to take a deeper look at SIFT, consider visiting our blog series on Misinformation Sleuthing.
Blatantly Bad Information
Sometimes misinformation can be easier to spot because it's outrageous (that "strong emotions" bit I just mentioned) or it comes from a source you already know is not credible. I say "can be" because we see large numbers of people take a false statements at face value. A colleague and I used to offer a public program on urban legends, which employ something Mike Caulfield (again! he's my hero!) has called "tropes." He calls tropes "building blocks" of narrative: they're broad, culturally ingrained narrative devices that can morph to fit different contexts and become sort of shorthand. Tropes are why I yell, "Never split up the group!" at my TV when watching scary movies. In the case of urban legends (and conspiracy theories), tropes have been used to spread falsities over time, such as the perennial claim that strangers tamper with Halloween candy.
I bring this up because we're seeing an example of urban legends' connection to political misinformation unfolding in real time. Namely, there is a longstanding urban legend that alleges immigrant-owned restaurants use cats in their meat supply. Snopes notes that this claim may date back over 150 years, and the linked article itself is 25 years old. Many urban legends involve fear of contamination and fear of "the other" (oftentimes people with marginalized identities), and this one involves both.
On the national stage, we have seen public figures making such claims. In 2024, the specific details plugged into this longstanding trope involve Springfield, Ohio, a town with a large population of Haitian immigrants. NPR recently published a history of how the trope of using food as a vehicle to further otherize immigrants has affected multiple communities over time, but the basic elements remain the same. And these claims have made a significant impact. NBC reports that Springfield saw over 30 bomb threats within one week of the presidential debate. In a CNN interview, vice presidential candidate JD Vance defended how he and his running mate "create stories" to gain media attention where they feel issues are being ignored. The campaign has justified their statements while various Ohio officials say that their claims have no evidence. (If you want to watch the full interview to view the entire context, it is here, but it does get pretty tense.)
(If you would like to learn more about urban legends, I blogged about them in 2021 and 2022.)
Possibly Misleading Information
Sometimes misinformation is even more insidious because it is more mundane. While writing the 2022 version of this post, I learned about Next with Kyle Clark's investigation into a the Denver Municipal Ballot Information Booklet that the Denver Elections Division sends out. A viewer noted that the comments against a particular ballot measure seemed off. Next found that unlike the statewide Blue Book, which is written by nonpartisan legislative staff, the comments in the Denver booklet are not checked for or bound to accuracy and that any registered voter can submit their opinion for inclusion in the guide. This isn't a moral judgment on that practice, but it is information that can add important context for people using the ballot booklet in their decision-making.
This story is a great example of how SIFT can be useful. The voter in the video Stopped and thought about the claim. They tried to Trace the claim back to its original source, and found that the claim could not be verified because the study referenced in the guide was not cited. Relying on only one informational resource can be risky, so Finding trusted coverage is important. Looking at multiple sources on the same topic can help clarify where consensus lies or where informational discrepancies might exist, potentially informing or changing someone's opinion or vote. Voters may take the fact that the argument against the ballot measure was printed and distributed by the Denver Elections Division as a sign that this information was fact-checked, or created by policy experts like the State Blue Book is, but by Investigating the source, the skeptical voter learned that this was not the case.''
I got to SIFT myself last week. I get a political text approximately every five seconds. Most are addressed to me, but many seem to be intended for either of my parents, my uncle who died in 2019, or urge a position on politics in a state none of us have any ties to. Sometimes I get texts that address contradictory voting positions on an issue, which has been happening with Amendment 80, an item on the statewide ballot. Proponents of 80 say it will protect school choice by enshrining in the state constitution. Opponents of 80 say that Colorado already allows open enrollment between public school districts and Amendment 80 will allow public funds to be diverted to private schools, home schools, and other non-public institutions (something proponents deny).
Last week, I received a text claiming that the president of the Colorado Education Association, the state's largest labor union, was in favor of Amendment 80. This surprised me, given what I've picked up from my personal spheres. I Googled CEA Amendment 80, and the top issue was a big ol' "No on 80" statement. When I looked at the text again, I saw it shared an image of a person they identified as president of the "Colorado Teachers Union," which as far as I can tell is not a real organization. The quote attributed this person was extremely vague and there was a sketchy audio clip that used another vague phrase about school choice, but nowhere in either of these quotes was anything tying them to Amendment 80 besides the sender (who was not attributed either). Who knows when that audio was recorded and in what context?
As it turns out, reporters at The Colorado Sun published an article about this same text identifying it as misinformation, and looking into it further I found a short segment of Next with Kyle Clark submitted by viewers. I was able to sniff this out almost immediately on my own. I credit some of my carefully honed debunking skills to being able to spot this one, but a lot of what clued me in was just paying attention to what's happening around me. But what if I hadn't known? What if I didn't know anyone else with any knowledge or stance on the issue? What if I hadn't looked into it at all, but had taken it at surface value and spread the misinformation to other people? How many people would cast votes they regret based on something purposefully misleading like this? The point is not which way I would vote on this measure, the point is that someone tried to gain votes using manipulation instead of persuasion.
Based on the number of state measures, let alone local ones, this year's ballot is going to be long. It's easy to get voting fatigue and skip issues or just mark what sounds fine upon first reading. If you're trying to really delve into a topic to sort out your thoughts, feelings, and ultimately your voting choice, going through a single ballot thoroughly can result in a huge amount of research. This is why it can be a good idea to try to check in regularly with election news as November 5 gets closer, to break up that research process into manageable pieces. Taking more time with research can also help with developing a list of go-to resources, whether that's publications, reporters, databases, fact-checking websites, etc. This is something we all do, but taking time to evaluate and re-evaluate sources can help your list evolve alongside your opinions and values on issues that may show up on future ballots.
Check in with your library
DPL has a slate of election-related resources on our Elections topic page. You can also contact us by phone, email, or chat to find or learn more about these resources.
The image used for this blog post showing an election at Denver East High School is a WPA Photo from 1940. Learn more about it by visiting our Digital Collections.