By Chase Woodruff | deputy editor
“I feel right now that we are not in a safe space for democracy. This administration has attacked us at every level, and they want to silence our voices.”
— Vita Lantz-Brown, an Arapahoe County voter
Aly Belknap with Colorado Common Cause leads a poll monitor training in Denver on Oct. 9, 2026. (Photo by Sara Wilson/Colorado Newsline)
By Sara Wilson
Around 50 Coloradans gathered in a conference room down the street from the state Capitol on Friday morning to become trained poll monitors ahead of the midterm elections, a subset of the 1,000 volunteers statewide who plan to observe polling sites and drop boxes as part of a pro-democracy effort. “We’re obviously nonpartisan. We’re there to report any issues,” Luana Charnes, a senior organizing manager with Common Cause, told trainees.
“I Voted” stickers are given out beside a mail ballot box at Denver Public Library’s Central Library on June 30, 2026. (Photo by Andrew Fraieli/Colorado Newsline)
By Jonathan Shorman
On Friday morning, the prediction market platform Kalshi gave the Democratic candidate in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race an 87% chance of winning. The volume of trading on the outcome exceeded $1.8 million. Activities like these “jeopardize people’s trust in elections,” Minnesota state Rep. Emma Greenman, who helped spearhead Minnesota’s first-in-the-nation near-total ban on prediction markets earlier this year.
A masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent knocks on a car window in Minnesota on Jan. 12, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
By Lindsey Toomer
The U.S. Department of Justice Thursday sued Denver over a city ordinance that bans law enforcement officers from wearing masks. Denver City Council unanimously adopted the policy in March in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers wearing masks to conceal their identities. It applies to federal, state and local law enforcement, and says officers must show identification upon request.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Orphaned cubs abound in Colorado as black bear families struggle to find food | By Sharon Sullivan
Commentary: Colorado Republicans navigate Trump’s unpopularity | By Quentin Young
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