2026 Boulder Voting Guide

This voting guide is partly based on information provided by former Boulder Mayor Suzanne Jones and former Boulder County Commissioner Elise Jones, and partly on Progress Now Colorado's voter guide for statewide elections and Boulder Reporting Lab's candidate interviews and forums. You can find more information about the ballot in the following sources:

• Colorado Blue Book (official, non-partisan guide)

• Progressive Voting Guide (provided by Progress Now Colorado)

• Boulder Voting Information (provided by Boulder Reporting Lab)

If you do not have a ton of time to do your own research for every single candidate and issue, this guide can help you get started.

U.S. Senate: John Hickenlooper. 

Former brewpub owner, Denver Mayor, CO Governor, and now U.S. Senator, John is a centrist Democrat and sometimes more moderate on issues than we’d like. Nonetheless, he’s the clear choice compared to his opponent, Republican State Senator Mark Baisley, who has promoted election fraud conspiracy theories about the 2020 elections. 

U.S. House (CO-02): Joe Neguse. 

Joe is one of the best public servants we’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing and he deserves your vote to continue serving us in Congress. He’s an eloquent orator, smart, accessible, able to work with Republicans and Democrats alike, a great progressive and committed climate champion, and an all-round stellar human being.

Governor/Lieutenant Governor: Phil Weiser/Lesley Dahlkemper. 

Former Dean of the CU Law School and current Attorney General for CO, Phil has done a great job fighting for CO’s interests, including suing the Trump Administration more than 80 times to stop illegal funding cuts and rollbacks of critical policies. Dahlkemper has served as a Jefferson County Commissioner for the past eight years, where she’s been an effective advocate on education policy, addressing the opioid addiction crisis, and working on wildfire mitigation. 

Secretary of State: Amanda Gonzales. 

As the elected Clerk & Recorder for Jefferson County, Amanda has overseen implementation of Jeffco’s elections for the past four years and formerly led CO Common Cause, where she championed establishment of CO’s gold standard election practices. She also would be the first Latina and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to serve as CO's Secretary of State, which would make a powerful statement about our state’s values.

State Treasurer: Jeff Bridges. 

During his 10 years as a state lawmaker, Jeff chaired the bipartisan Joint Budget Committee, which is tasked with balancing the state budget, providing him with a solid background in financial management and CO’s fiscal challenges. If elected, Jeff has pledged to invest CO’s money within the state to help create more jobs, build more housing that’s affordable, and expand use of clean energy.

Attorney General: Jena Griswold. 

Jena has served as our Secretary of State for the past eight years, giving her relevant experience running a major state agency. Jena has a strong record of standing up to Trump, protecting elections, and expanding ballot access, and, if elected, plans to focus on defending reproductive and civil rights, taking on corporate price gouging, and challenging the federal administration on key state issues.

CU Regent - District 2: Edie Hooton. 

During her six years as a State Representative, Edie chaired the Capital Development Committee, where she supported funding for numerous CU infrastructure projects and gained a deep understanding of CU’s budget, leading to CU honoring her as State Legislator of the Year.

The following races all feature incumbent progressive Democratic candidates who have proven records in the state legislature doing work that we support, and we urge you to vote for them:

• State Senator – District 15: Janice Marchman

• State Senator – District 17: Katie Wallace

• State Representative – District 10: Junie Joseph (uncontested)

• State Representative – District 11: Karen McCormick (uncontested)

• State Representative – District 12: Kyle Brown

• State Representative – District 49: Lesley Smith

• State Representative – District 19: Jillaire McMillan

Jillaire is a mom of four, small business owner, avid community volunteer, with two degrees in American History, running on a platform of public money for public schools, gun violence prevention, reproductive & health care access, affordable housing & public transportation, more civility and a healthy environment. She is up against Dan Woog, who earned a 0% environmental rating from Conservation CO in 2026; she ran for this seat in 2024 after the incumbent dropped out at the last minute, losing by just 110 votes.

Regional Transportation District Director - District O: Jack Rosenthal. 

RTD District O includes Boulder, Louisville, Superior and western Boulder County. Jack Rosenthal is a young software engineer and transit advocate, bringing his energy and data analysis skills to improve transit and rider experience. He has spent years advocating for riders. Among other things, he helped write and pass Colorado's Transit Access Bill, which now requires clear system maps and expanded language access at stops and stations statewide. Jack said: “If we want people to actually ride, we need to see that the service works for them.” His priorities include advancing passenger rail to Boulder, restoring direct bus service for major events and increasing ridership through more frequent and reliable service. His opponent has more transit experiences and is better connected. However, RTD needs change as the status quo is simply untenable. Let's give Jack the chance (2-yr term) to bring bold, innovative reforms to RTD and make public transit better and more accessible.

Boulder County Commissioner - District 3: Ashley Stolzmann (uncontested)

Boulder County Clerk and Recorder: Molly Fitzpatrick (uncontested)

Boulder County Treasurer: Rachel Friend (uncontested)

County Assessor: Cynthia Braddock (uncontested)

County Sheriff: Curtis Johnson (uncontested)

County Surveyor: Kayce D.W. Keane (uncontested)

County Coroner: Jeff Martin (uncontested)

City of Boulder Mayor: Boulder’s Mayor is elected by ranked choice voting, where voters rank candidates in order of preference; you may rank all candidates or as few candidates as you like.

• Our #1 choice: Aaron Brockett. 

Aaron has been serving in Boulder for many years. We are impressed with Aaron’s calm principled leadership; ability to listen and civilly communicate even with people who disagree with him; his thoughtful and inclusive approach to policymaking; and his commitment to working collaboratively to tackle the problems facing Boulder, from affordability concerns and budget shortfalls to climate change and equity. Aaron has been endorsed by all of his fellow Boulder City Council members, with the exception of Taishya Adams, who is also running for Mayor. This is a testament to Aaron's leadership and collaborative spirit.

• Our 2nd choice: Taishya Adams. 

Taishya is a current Boulder Councilwoman, who has been an outspoken advocate for inclusion, community building and system change. She is also an educator, environmentalist, outdoorswoman, and musician, who has served on many boards including the CO Parks & Wildlife Commission, CO State Land Board Workgroup, and Boulder Police Oversight Panel, among others.

Boulder City Council: Vote for 5 candidates. 

Important: Vote for 5 or fewer candidates. Your vote will NOT be counted if you vote for 6 or more. The top 5 vote getters will serve in the council with Matt Benjamin, Rob Kaplan and Nicole Speer who are not up for election this year.  

What criteria do we use to evaluate the candidates? We evaluate them based on their positions on zoning reform, approaches to addressing the homelessness issue, urgency on wildfire mitigation, willingness to cut red tape, willingness to hold Xcel accountable for power outages, support for independent audits, innovative problem-solving skills, as well as racial, economic and generational diversity.

These are the five candidates we recommend (ordered by their appearance on the ballot):

• Sam Fuqua: Many people know Sam from his years of working as Station Manager for KGNU Radio or serving on (and chairing) the Boulder Valley School Board or the Boulder Library Commission; we think his commitment to the community, journalistic approach to achieving thoughtful and informed policymaking, emphasis on government transparency & clarity, personable nature, and collaborative style would be great additions to the City Council. He brings useful lived experience to the City’s housing discussion having previously resided in a Boulder mobile home park and income-qualified affordable housing.

• Ryan Schuchard: Ryan is an incumbent Councilman who is always well-informed and who has effectively focused on improving transportation and housing access in Boulder, and who is a great climate champion.

• Jamillah Richmond: Jamillah is a single mother living in affordable housing. She has extensive experience serving on BVSD's District Accountability Committee and executive team, on the City of Boulder's BVCP Community Assembly focused on accessibility, and on several nonprofit boards. She's passionate about education, affordable housing, a more accountable city government, and meaningful community outreach and conversation. She will bring her lived experience and a fresh voice to the city council.

• Jill Adler Grano: A former City Councilwoman (who resigned to take a job with Congressman Neguse), Jill combines a positive energy that creates community wherever she goes with a deep understanding of housing affordability & financing challenges and solutions.

• Tina Marquis: Tina is an incumbent Councilwoman, having served for the past three years, and a former Boulder Valley School Board member, who is hitting her stride on Council; her focus is on advocating for housing that works for families, addressing homelessness and public safety, strengthening wildfire resilience, and ensuring more accountable city governance and budget alignment.

Vote yes to retain all of the judges on the Boulder County ballot. All of them met performance standards according to the Colorado Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation. 

Vote NO on all Advance Colorado-backed initiatives. Nearly half of this year’s 13 state initiatives are sponsored by Advance CO, a right-wing “dark money” group that does not disclose its donors. In recent years, because Republicans have failed to elect legislative majorities at the state Capitol, Advance CO has repeatedly (and sometimes successfully) worked to pass conservative policies through the ballot box instead. It’s important to push back on this practice or we will see more attempts like this in the future. Read more about Advance CO here.

Amendment #81 - Law Enforcement Reporting Requirements to Federal Authorities (constitutional): Vote NO.

This is an Advance CO-funded measure that would require law enforcement to work with ICE. Instead, we need to protect our immigrant community members from the inhumane and often illegal tactics being employed by ICE.   

Amendment #82 - Right to Natural Gas (constitutional): Vote NO. 

This is an Advance CO-funded measure that would lock into CO’s constitution the right to buy and sell natural gas, which would upend existing public health and safety regulations and climate policy, e.g., oil and gas setbacks, building energy codes, gas explosions, or other requirements that industry might see as limiting their ability to produce and sell natural gas. No pollution in the constitution!

Amendment #83 - Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish (constitutional): Vote NO. 

This amendment would impede wildlife conservation by enshrining in the constitution that hunting is the state’s preferred method of wildlife management. Animal rights advocates argue that it could also lead to animal cruelty. This amendment is proposed by out-of-state special interests, led by an international trophy-hunting group based in Wisconsin. Other backers of Amendment 83 include the Safari Club International of Washington, D.C and the far-right activist group Turning Point USA. 

Amendment #84 - Mail Ballot Voter (constitutional): Vote NO. 

This measure impedes mail ballot voting by requiring voters to provide the last four digits of their Social Security number or driver’s license number to ensure their mail ballot is counted. This is a solution in search of a problem, using the myth of voter fraud to create more barriers to voting.

Amendment #85 - Plain Language Ballot Questions (constitutional): Vote NO. 

Colorado law already requires ballot measures to be written in understandable language. This is an Advance CO-funded measure that would make it more difficult to include fiscal and taxation impact information on measures and would invite litigation on whether ballot measures meet this new threshold. 

Amendment #86 - Congressional Redistricting (constitutional): Vote NO. 

This is an Advance CO-funded measure that would require any mid-decade or “off-cycle” redistricting effort to be approved by both the state’s independent redistricting commission and the CO Supreme Court. This measure was designed to tie the hands of Coloradans to respond to Trump’s push for Republican gerrymandering efforts in other states - while doing nothing to stop them.

Amendment #87 - Graduated Income Tax (constitutional): Vote YES. 

This measure, promoted by the Bell Policy Center, would have individuals making more than $500,000 pay more in income tax, and everyone else pay less, and use the extra revenue to fund education and healthcare. This measure would change CO’s current flat tax rate, which is regressive for those making less money, to a more progressive system. Graduated Income Tax: Frequently Asked Questions - The Bell Policy Center.

Proposition NN - State Public K-12 Education Funding: Vote YES. 

Referred measure from the legislature to raise the limit on the amount of tax revenue that the state is allowed to retain under the TABOR (Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights), to increase funding for K-12 education by about $500 million a year. Proposition NN explained: Colorado TABOR refunds would be sent to K-12 - The Colorado Sun.

Proposition #132 - Penalties for Fentanyl Crimes: Vote NO. 

This is an Advance CO-funded measure that would increase sentences and penalties for drug-related crimes. Data shows such penalties do not reduce drug use or related overdose deaths, but instead disproportionately impact communities of color and create additional barriers to economic stability for people struggling with addiction.

Proposition #133 - Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor: Vote NO. 

Backed by the conservative anti-LGBTQ advocacy group Protect Kids CO, this measure is not expected to meaningfully reduce the prevalence of child sex trafficking and may instead lead to harsh punishments for victims forced to traffic others. 

Proposition #134 - Male and Female Participation in School Sports: Vote NO. 

This is an anti-trans measure backed by the conservative anti-LGBTQ advocacy group Protect Kids CO that would mandate sex-based eligibility rules for all K-12 and collegiate school sports teams, limit transgender participation, and direct schools to adopt verification policies. 

Proposition #135 - Prohibit Certain Surgeries on Minors: Vote NO. 

This is another anti-trans measure backed by the conservative anti-LGBTQ advocacy group Protect Kids Colorado that would ban surgeries “for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics” and apply to both transgender and non-transgender patients under 18.

Proposition #136 - Income Tax Rate Cap: Vote NO. 

This is an Advance CO-funded measure that is designed to thwart Amendment #87 that will create a graduated income tax and increase funding for education and healthcare. 

Proposition #137 - Designate Sporting Goods Sales Tax Revenue for Conservation: Vote YES. 

A measure supported by numerous local and state conservation groups and electeds that would generate revenue without raising taxes (by allowing the state to keep existing state sales tax revenues from sporting goods and equipment) to invest in land and water conservation, wildfire prevention and mitigation, and to support outdoor recreation training and access. The measure has a safety valve if need be; since it’s a statutory measure, the legislature has flexibility to send monies to other priorities in a low-budget year. CO urgently needs funding for wildfire prevention and mitigation. This measure will help protect our safety and our future. Vote Yes on Prop 137 - Yes on Prop 137.

Boulder County Ballot Issue 1A - Early Childhood Care and Education Mill Levy Increase and Voter-Approved Revenue Change: Vote YES. 

Would raise property taxes to pay for: lowering the cost of childcare and preschool, increasing pay for early childhood educators and staff, and expanding childcare capacity in Boulder County. This is a necessary investment to help address the extreme lack of available childcare options, which is resulting in huge costs for families, forcing workers to stay home to care for their children, forcing people to leave the County, and worsening learning and development outcomes for young children.

Boulder County Ballot Question 200: Vote YES. 

This measure would increase the Boulder County Board of Commissioners from three members to five members. Here are some reasons to vote YES:

• The commissioners are overloaded: only three of them oversee a budget greater than that of the Boulder City Council, which has eight council members.

• Three is not a functional number of commissioners, because when one of them is sick or on vacation, the board can easily deadlock.

• Commissioners can’t have private one-on-one conversations, because two is a quorum and those conversations would have to be held in public under open meeting laws.

• Since Boulder County is so blue, the primaries often decide the final outcome. Given the high primary turnout in District 1 (Boulder), Boulderites have more influence over who becomes commissioners than the rest of the county does. This is great for Boulderites, but it’s not very democratic.

• Increasing the number of commissioners to five would improve representation, especially if voters approve the five-district model proposed in Ballot Question 201.

• The cost increase is less than 0.1% of the annual budget the board oversees. That drawback will likely be outweighed by the benefit of a more functional and better-represented board.

• It’s worth noting that six of the eight current Boulder City Council members support this ballot measure. Although it will likely take some “power” away from Boulder, they recognize that it is necessary for the county commission to function better.

Boulder County Ballot Question 201: Vote for the FIVE DISTRICTS model.

Related to Ballot Question 200, this measure asks: If the membership of the Boulder County Board of Commissioners is increased from a three member board to a five member board, by what method shall the Boulder County Board of Commissioners be elected? 

We support the first method: "Five commissioners resident in districts to be elected only by voters resident in the district". With this method, the commission will best represent voices from all corners of Boulder County. And given that Boulder County is so blue, there is little risk of diluting progressive values with this new model, but the commission will more fairly represent all residents in the county.

City of Boulder Ballot Issue 2J - Residential Vacancy Excise Tax: Vote YES. 

This measure would tax vacant residential property if vacant for more than half the year (183 days), at a rate of roughly $4,000 per year, to provide additional flexible funding for general city services. In general, we agree with the logic of having property owners pay for the impact of their vacant second homes (instead of providing much-needed housing for others).

City of Boulder Ballot Issue 2K - Recreation and Safety Bond: Vote NO. 

This measure, referred by City Council, would borrow up to $400 million, paid for by increased property taxes, to finance capital infrastructure to address the city’s backlog of aging recreation centers, fire stations, and public safety facilities. Capital investment and building improvement are clearly necessary - take the South Boulder Recreation Center as an example - but this will be one of the largest tax increases in Boulder history, and it’s not very well thought out. We need a more precise and detailed plan, including both the capital expenditure and ongoing maintenance costs, and more transparency and accountability measures before moving ahead with a property tax increase. The city should come back to the voters with a better measure in 2027 or 2028.

City of Boulder Ballot Question 2L - Bargaining Rights Union Firefighters in City Charter: Vote YES.  

This measure would create a charter-guaranteed right for full-time fire department employees to bargain collectively over matters related to safety, wages, benefits, and other conditions of employment; these rights already currently exist in contract, and the right to take disagreements to be resolved through non-binding factfinding is currently in a city ordinance. Firefighters, who risk their lives and health on the job, deserve compensation that reflects the risks they take, plus it is in our best interest to attract the best firefighters we can.

City of Boulder Ballot Question 2M - Debt Limit City Charter Language Change: Vote YES. 

This straightforward measure would update how the city’s debt limitation is calculated, using the “actual” value of the property in the city instead of the “assessed” value, which is consistent with how most municipalities and the state calculate debt limitation and would allow the city to issue more debt than is currently permitted. This is a no-brainer whether you vote Yes or Not on Ballot Issue 2K.

Front Range Passenger Rail District Ballot Issue #7A: Vote YES. 

Would approve a 0.333% sales tax (33 cents on a $100 purchase) in 31 Front Range municipalities to fund the Colorado Connector passenger rail service from Ft. Collins to Pueblo, including stops in Boulder, Longmont, and Louisville. Finally, the train is coming to town!  Issue 7A would pass sales tax for Colorado Connector passenger rail.