Defense against Colorado election threats

By Quentin Young | editor

By Chase Woodruff

One week out from Election Day, Colorado’s county clerks say voters can cast their ballots in the 2026 midterm elections with full confidence that their votes will be counted — and they’re prepared to defend state elections against interference by the Trump administration. Nationwide, President Donald Trump and his allies have launched unprecedented efforts to influence the 2026 midterms, including preemptive legal challenges against some states’ election procedures, amid growing fears that the administration could interfere with or refuse to accept the results of the election altogether.

By Chase Woodruff

Colorado’s most expensive ballot-measure showdown in the 2026 midterms is an overlapping series of fights over several high-stakes tax questions, with a mishmash of left- and right-leaning groups spending a combined total of more than $14 million to influence Colorado voters on the measures ahead of Election Day. Among the dozens of issue committees registered to support or oppose the 14 measures appearing on the 2026 statewide ballot, none is better-funded than Yes for Kids Colorado, a teachers-union-funded group that has spent more than $6.8 million to support Proposition NN.

By Sammy Herdman

A wave of new rules and proposals from the current federal government pose a severe threat to the health of public lands used for grazing livestock. The proposed updates are misguided in their attempt to undermine the few meaningful programs in place to manage public grazing allotments sustainably. Ignoring the impact that climate change and drought have on cattle ranching in the West won’t make those issues go away. In fact, as time will tell, the opposite is true.

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