Responsive Gov’s Grade TL;DR

Colorado continues to be a national leader in passing pro-voter policies. During this past session, the state Legislature expanded voting access on tribal lands and college campuses and increased opportunities for underrepresented voters. Because of the additional improvements Colorado made over this past year, the state received an A on this year’s progress report.

Looking Back

Where Colorado Started at the Beginning of 2023

• Automatic Voter Registration: Secure AVR
• Online Voter Registration: OVR+
• Same-Day Registration: Yes
• Restoration of Rights: Prison Disenfranchisement
• Vote by Mail: Vote by Mail
• Electronic Registration Information Center Member: Yes
• Early Voting Opportunities: Regular Ballot Early Voting
• ID Requirements: ID Requested, but Not Required

Relying on the Cost of Voting Index for Colorado as of 2022, we considered the state a top tier state for pre-existing voting policy and compared its 2023 activity against other top tier states.

How Our Tier Compares

• COVI (2022): 5th
• EPI Score (2020): 9th
• CLC State Scorecard (2022): 9/10
• MAP Democracy Rating (2022): HIGH

2023: This Past Year

Legislative Action

Once again, the Assembly continued to expand opportunities for voter registration and participation.

• S 276 makes several changes to election processes: it helps facilitate voting by individuals living on tribal lands, including allowing tribes to set up automatic voter registration systems with the state; it expands opportunities for in-person voting for tribal members; it ensures that all voters receive primary ballots with all major party candidates; it increases voting access on college campuses and in county jails; it allows voters to use certain digital format IDs for election-related purposes; and it requires ballot counting to begin at least 4 days before an election in larger counties, among other things.

Implementation Action

• Colorado is working on implementing automatic voter registration through tribal enrollment with the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute tribes. This would be a first-in-the-nation model for how a state can effectively expand voting rights to tribes through automatic voter registration.