The Colorado mail ballots arrived in our mailbox Tuesday, and after reading through the Voter's Guide booklet we've begun filling out our choices. Most of which are relatively easy 'no-brainers' (given the 'D' beside the name.) The Amendments are a bit more problematic because so many were backed by dark money and are framed as propaganda - to snare the unwary voter's support.
Case in point Amendment 81. If enshrined in the state constitution it would require Colorado law enforcement to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about people charged with crimes who they know are in the country illegally - or whose legal status they can't determine within 72 hours of charges being filed.
Thanks to the work by Indivisible i.e.
I-COS Voting Recommendation Guide
we've learned this amendment is backed by 'Advance Colorado' - a dark money that does not reveal its donors. Doesn't matter because we got the inside scoop: this is given it would include defendants previously convicted of felonies and those whose immigration status couldn't be confirmed. BUT being charged with a crime is not the same as being convicted of one. Given it tasks law enforcement with investigating immigration status it could easily result in racial profiling.
The Colorado Rights Commission opposes it and that is good enough for us. This is given it tries to make Colorado law enforcement an arm of the federal government. The other Advance Colorado Amendments tagged include: 82, 83, 84, 85 and 86.
We have also been advised by Indivisible to use 24-hr. drop boxes (which begin opening on Oct. 12) as opposed to mailing ballots via the Postal service. Just a precaution given all the tumult Trump has caused and likely not the end by any means. Colorado voters have also been notified the state offers same day voting registration at voting centers before polls close on Election Day, Nov. 3rd.
All citizens need to have all their 'ducks in a row' given how critical this midterm election is. That is, finally after two years restoring checks and balances on the renegade Trump White House and on the Felon-in-chief himself, who's literally gone off the rails. This election is a biggie given it will determine control of congress - Senate as well as the House. Both of Colorado House seats are being contested and it is fervently hoped Dems can win them - as well as State house seats. We need the biggest majority we can get, especially in the U.S. House, responsible for holding elected officials to account via subpoena power.
The only non-dark money backed amendments are the ones we are voting for: 87 and NN. Amendment 87 will allow state taxes to be increased $2.7 billion annually to "increase or improve the level of public services including K-12 public school education, health care and early child care."
As one Denver Post letter writer put it, describing the benefits of 87:
"I have seen what happens when schools are asked to do too much with too little. Educators stretch themselves thinner, students lose opportunities and communities are left trying to fill the gaps. Our children deserve better than another year of making do. Amendment 87 gives Colorado a fairer way forward.
It replaces our flat (TABOR) income tax with graduated rates, lowering income taxes for most taxpayers while asking those with the highest taxable incomes to contribute more. Children need excellent schools, access to care and a strong start in life. I am proudly voting yes on Amendment 87."
The writer covered the basis superbly. As for Amendment NN, it enables investment in K-12 education "to increase two percent each year for the next ten years, with investments used to increase teacher pay and improve teacher retention."
Again, a worthwhile amendment, providing potential for a constructive state future as opposed to a destructive one - advocated by the dark money amendments. We hope a majority of other voters are on the same wavelength for voting as we are - and are also following the Indivisible 'cheat sheet' exposing the dark money inputs.
Beyond the state issues, we're now ready to catapult key Dems in House positions to finally neutralize the useless, sycophantic GOP majority - which has acquired its fame by doing nothing. It's time now for voters in every state to return the U.S. back to Constitutional priorities - as opposed to those of one loudmouth, deranged egomaniac.
See also:
Tuesday marks 28 days until the Nov. 3 election, and Democrats are preparing for a "doomsday scenario," CNN reports.
It's not unheard of for the Democratic Party or presidential campaigns to assemble an army of lawyers ready to file lawsuits or go to judges at a moment's notice. This year, however, something else is brewing, and it's much bigger.
Senior CNN reporter Annie Grayer told Manu Raju that for months Democrats have been working behind the scenes to play out possible scenarios that would have been unheard of even six years ago "because Democrats do not want to leave anything up to chance here."
"Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has been convening groups of senators, lawyers, outside experts to do the sort of role-playing scenarios where they're given very specific scenarios to talk through how they would handle potential intervention from the [Donald] Trump administration, what that intervention could look like."
In a nationwide poll conducted a few weeks ago and reported on by Axios, the majority of all registered voters surveyed said the number one word to describe Donald Trump is “corrupt.” This represents a massive opportunity for Democrats both now and for the next two years.
And the experience of candidates in today’s Democrats’ position around the world validates the argument that this is the best way to both campaign and win elections and political power.
Péter Magyar defeated Viktor Orbán in the Hungarian elections because he ran a Navalny-style playbook, calling Orbán’s and his billionaire buddies’ capture of the media and most other aspects of Hungarian life a “state capture system” grounded in good old-fashioned “corruption.”
We are dealing with more than madness and corruption in Washington. Our multi-crisis is a manifestation of evil which permeates much of our society. Our certifiably insane would-be dictator, with his repeated threats to eliminate Iran’s people and civilization while tossing almost a million people off of healthcare are but a few of his regime’s crimes against humanity. All of these issues are interrelated, which is why our resistance must be multi-issue and multifaceted.
November’s elections will define our futures, and, as in the darkest days of Nazism and Jim Crow racism, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. So, defending our albeit flawed Constitution and elections, so that we can change policies and actions, must be our priority. We need a united and active front against the lawless would-be dictator and his minions.
by Bill Blum | October 2, 2026 - 7:24am | permalink
Just when it seemed the Supreme Court might be prepared to stop Donald Trump from sabotaging the midterm elections, the six Republican justices who dominate the court handed the president a potentially far-reaching victory on Sept. 25 with another ruling on its emergency “shadow” docket. The ruling in Department of Homeland Security v. League of Women Voters permits the administration and Republican-led states to use a newly expanded federal database to review state voter lists, overturning a lower-court decision that had concluded the database could not be used for the midterms because it violates federal privacy laws and the Administrative Procedure Act.
The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program was created in 1986 to allow federal, state and local government agencies to verify the citizenship and immigration status of noncitizens applying for public benefits, relying on records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the Department of State. However, in March 2025, Trump promulgated Executive Order 14248 (titled “Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections”), that revamped the program to permit state and local authorities to verify the citizenship status of registered voters so they could purge noncitizens from the rolls — a purpose the SAVE program was never intended to serve. The executive order also directed the Social Security Administration to make its records available to the DHS for that purpose. Two months later, the DHS, acting on its own, launched a modified SAVE program that allows state and local authorities to conduct unlimited bulk searches of multiple individuals at once.
And:
by Michael Waldman | October 2, 2026 - 6:55am | permalink
— from the Brennan Center for Justice
Will this be a “wave” election, sweeping new people into power? In some ways, it already is.
Due to retirements and primary defeats in safe districts, there will be 99 new members of Congress next year—and that’s before accounting for any seats that change party hands. A powerful anti-incumbent fervor pervades both parties.
Throughout history, there have been times when voters spoke loudly. The 1974 Watergate election, in which Democrats won 49 new seats. The 1994 “Republican Revolution” that made Newt Gingrich speaker after gaining 54 seats. The 2018 election, the first time voters rejected Donald Trump’s chaos. Polls do not suggest a swing of that magnitude. Democrats are lagging in popularity, even as voters recoil from Trump’s Republicans. But voter sentiment is not the only reason less may change than before.
And:
Brane Space: Mark Elias Was Correct: Supremes Don't Merit A "Gold Star"
And:
