I’m planning to drop my 2022 ballot in the nearest (1.5 miles) collection box tomorrow, after spending a few hours this weekend marking and double checking it. My bluebook looks like something from the night before an exam, full of notes, circles, and crossed-out names (the latter being all the Republicans.) If you happen to be a moderate Republican, I might owe you an apology, but we have some real wingnuts running in Colorado and I’m staying as far away as possible from any name with an R after it.
Above is the envelope containing my ballot, before I opened it. So nice to have it mailed to me for each election, even though I do have to retrieve it from my locked mailbox at the top of the block. (This is one of the very few worthwhile items appearing in that box.)
Below is this year’s bluebook, delivered several weeks ago. This “little” gem, compiled by the Legislative Council of the Colorado General Assembly, is 8.5″ x 11″, and the English half is 83 pages. Flip it over for 87 pages of Spanish. It contains all the candidates for office, the full text of all the state questions (with the pros and cons of each), and all the judges hoping to retain their positions.
The interesting thing here is that the bluebook comes from the state, not from the League of Women Voters. I saw a lone news report some time ago saying it had been found that the LWV book did not contain unbiased pros and cons for state questions but instead, not-always-factual summaries written by advocates of those positions. Or something like that. Currently I can’t find any information about it but at the time I was surprised and saddened to hear anything negative about the work of the LWV.
In any case, I’ll be hitting the dropbox in the next day or two and I’ll be notified via email, usually within two days, when my ballot has been collected and counted.
My fingers are already firmly crossed, Sue ..
I can’t type with my fingers crossed, so I’m holding my breath instead.
Got my ballot yesterday.
It’s solid gold this year.
Dropped mine in the locked box last week- fingers crossed
I’ll probably have an anxiety attack before this is over.
same!
We are working on ours and will probably drop them off this week. I have big blanks for the judges, though. I’m completely in the dark, don’t want to vote for a crazy, but don’t know how to find reliable info.
I love in a bright blue state… I sometimes wish I could vote in a purple or red state so I could help change the outcome.
In the past I’ve tried to find out if the judges were appointed by a D or an R, and went by that. This time around all appear to have been appointed by one of our last two Dem govs. So I went by their evaluations from the board that reviews their performance. Of course, if that board happens to be all Republicans …
…congratulations on voting. But, holy crap, does it sound like a lot of work. I just voted for Municipal Council a few days ago, and that was me arriving with a PIN number and proof of address (could have been a cable bill), and choosing two of three names on the ballot (I could have done it by phone or the Web). For the Provincial election last Spring, it was one piece of paper with seven names on it.
And it freaks me out (not a little bit) that judges in your country are selected / voted in based on their Republican or Democrat leanings.
Judges in Ontario are chosen by an Independent committee of thirteen people: “seven lay members who are appointed by the Attorney General, two judges are appointed by the Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Justice, one member is appointed by the Ontario Judicial Council and three from the legal community are appointed by the Attorney General from lists of three names submitted by the Law Society of Ontario, Ontario Bar Association and the Federation of Ontario Law Associations, respectively. All members serve for a term of three years and may be re-appointed.”
https://www.ontariocourts.ca/ocj/jaac/
I believed for years that judges are nonpartisan and that politics didn’t enter in. But here in Colorado, governors appoint judges, who sit for two years and then are voted in or out by the public. (The bluebook includes performance evaluations of each judge, compiled by an independent committee of legal professionals.) It’s only my skeptical assumption that governors are likely to appoint like-minded judges. I’ve no other way to guess their personal positions, which ideally should be based only on the law. Trump, of course, shredded every last vestige of nonpartisanship among our Supreme Court justices and, in the process, shredded any respect I had for that court.
Yes, the US is a mess right now. Partisanship is at a level I’ve never seen before, and I’m deeply concerned. Of course, I’ve become part of the problem by flatly rejecting the right, although I’d like to think not all Republicans are trumpers, MAGAs, insurrectionists, etc. I hope I’m not the only voter trying to send a message that the far right is WRONG.
(Voting needn’t be as hard as I make it. I’m just trying to be diligent because there’s a lot on the line.)
“The bluebook includes performance evaluations of each judge, compiled by an independent committee of legal professionals.”
…this is something I’d *love* to see here.
It is interesting to read. Observations from both attorneys and non-attorneys about how the judges conduct themselves, how they manage their courtroom, how knowledgable they are about the relevant law, etc.
Gabriel is right about voting being “. . . a lot of work!”, but only if done conscientiously, like PT does it. I wish MO were as smart as CO in allowing absentee voting for everyone. It would encourage people to take the process more seriously.
I like Colorado’s system not only for its convenience but because it gives people like me all the time we want to study the ballot. Of course we could take a marked-up bluebook with us to the polls, but getting to a polling place and possibly standing in a long line would now be difficult for me and likely discourage my participation and that of others like me.
I’m a Colorado voter too, and I was just eyeing the ballot this afternoon. I absolutely love our system and every time I hear criticism of mail-in voting I just cringe. I am registered for updates online, and I get a text when the ballot is put in the mail, another text when the ballot is received, and a final text when the ballot is accepted. One year the ballot didn’t make it to me, and that’s when I found out that it was actually numbered and registered to me. The orginal ballot was cancelled, another one was registered to me, and in a couple of days I had it. My drop off is at the local library so I am waiting until a book I want comes in before I drive down to drop it off. How convenient is that!!
Oh, I am so not voting for any republican this year. I am big time on fire about attacks on voting rights, reproductive health care access for women, and threats to Medicare/Social Security. I’m a retired teacher and I have to say if I was in the classroom now and the “Don’t Say Gay” law was made national I would be out on my butt in a hot minute. It was hard to teach biology 10 years ago, but now it would be impossible. Sigh. Guess I’ll start marking up my blue book…
Hi MK, and welcome to Pied Type. We do have a great system, don’t we? I’ll bet more people would vote if all states adopted our system, but there’s so much distrust now, the only likely changes would be adding restrictions.
I’ve always gotten my ballot. There was one year when the truck with my ballot got lost, or something like that, but it only delayed my receipt by a day or two, and preparations were already being made to replace all those missing ballots if necessary.
I feel that our system is really impressive! This year I renewed my driver’s license and they made sure that my signature was exactly what I had registered to vote under (I used my maiden name on the license and my middle name on the voter registration… now everything is exactly the same.) I’m sure this was done to make sure my vote would not be challenged for any reason.
They were very meticulous when I moved here and went to register. I had my original birth certificate, but the notary’s stamp was only embossed, not ink, and apparently no longer legible enough to suit them. I had to order a new birth certificate from Missouri before they’d register me and give me a license.