Colorado’s primaries are June 30. Here’s what you need to know about the candidates and how to vote.

Colorado voters will be weighing in on a long list of races — from U.S. Senate to county commissioner contests — in the state’s primaries this year, which will be held Tuesday, June 30. 

The Colorado Sun is here to help you figure out how to cast your ballot and provide you with information on the candidates to help you participate. 

Note: The candidates who win in the primaries will advance to the general election in November. Ballot measures won’t go before voters until then, too.

How The Colorado Sun is covering the primaries

The Sun began covering the 2026 election in Colorado at the start of 2025. But we wanted to share our coverage philosophy with you, our readers, to be transparent about our guiding principles.

The Sun is a small newsroom, so we think hard about how to best use our limited resources. Thus, we are focusing our election coverage on races that are competitive and that will have an effect on the trajectory of the state and nation.

In the races we are tracking most closely, we’ll provide comparisons of where candidates stand on the issues that voters tell us they care about. We’ll also examine the records of office holders and candidates. 

One thing you’ll find a lot of in The Sun election coverage is stories about money in politics. Campaigns that raise the most money — or that benefit the most from spending by political groups — don’t always win, but cash does play a significant role in elections. So The Sun is keeping a close eye on how much candidates and issue groups raise, where it’s coming from and how they spend it. 

When Election Day arrives, you can expect The Sun to be working nonstop to bring you coverage of what’s happening on the ground. Results start being shared by county clerks at 7 p.m. June 30, and they’ll be available at coloradosun.com.

We won’t post full stories about races until we know whether a contest is going to be called in one candidate’s direction or another — or if a contest will be too close to call on election night. Early results are just that. We don’t want to mislead you as to which way a contest is going. 

You’ll still be able to track races on our site.

Finally, the Colorado Sun is hosting at least three primary candidate forums in the lead up to June 30:

• At 6 p.m. on May 28 at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, where the Democrats running to represent the 8th Congressional District will face off. They are former state Rep. Shannon Bird, Marine veteran Evan Munsing and state Rep. Manny Rutinel. Find details and register to attend here.
• At 6 p.m. on June 10 at the University of Denver, where at least three of the four Democrats running for attorney general will face off. Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, former federal prosecutor Hetal Doshi and consumer and workers rights attorney David Seligman will participate in the forum. Secretary of State Jena Griswold has not confirmed her participation. Find details and register to attend here.
• At 10 a.m. on June 13 at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where Democratic gubernatorial candidates U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Attorney General Phil Weiser will face off. Find details and register to attend here.

How to vote

If you’re an active, registered voter in Colorado, you’ll receive a primary ballot in the mail (with some exceptions for people registered with third parties) ahead of the June 30 election. 

County clerks may begin mailing ballots to voters on June 8, and they’ll start arriving in mailboxes in the days after. 

Check your voter registration at govotecolorado.gov by entering your name, ZIP code and date of birth. You may also register to vote or change your address online. 

If your registration says “inactive,” that’s because your ballot was returned as undeliverable in a past election. You may re-register online or by submitting a written request to your county’s clerk.

There is no deadline to register to vote to be able to cast a ballot in Colorado’s primaries this year. As long as you are registered before polls close on June 30, you can cast a ballot.

To register to vote in Colorado, people must provide their Colorado driver’s license number, the last four digits of their Social Security number or present another valid form of identification. If the form of ID doesn’t confirm someone’s citizenship, they must affirm under the penalty of perjury that they are a U.S. citizen.

To receive a ballot in the mail, however, you must be registered by June 22, though by that date you will have to return it to a drop box or an in-person voting center and cannot mail it back in. (Find drop boxes and voting centers here.)

Once you’ve filled out your ballot, sealed it in the return envelope and signed and dated the envelope, mail it (with postage affixed) or take it to one of your county’s drop boxes or an in-person voting center. (Most voters drop their ballots off.) 

Your ballot must be received by 7 p.m. June 30. If you have not mailed back your ballot by June 22, the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office says you should return it in person at a drop box or an in-person voting center.

You may sign up to use BallotTrax, the state’s ballot tracking system, and you’ll receive an email, text or both when your ballot is accepted.

If you want to vote in person, hundreds of voting centers across the state will open by June 22 at the latest (some counties may open earlier). Contact your county clerk for nearby locations and hours where you may vote in person. 

If you vote in person, you must present identification such as a driver’s license, U.S. passport or other identification on this list. If you are voting by mail for the first time, you may also need to include a copy of your ID with your mail ballot. 

If your ID is required, your county clerk will include instructions with your mail ballot.

Otherwise, no ID is required to vote in Colorado by mail.

What to do if you’re an unaffiliated voter

Unaffiliated voters, who make up more than half of the state’s electorate, may participate in Colorado’s June 30 primaries thanks to a 2016 ballot measure approved by voters. 

Active, registered unaffiliated voters will receive both a Democratic and Republican primary ballot. They may only fill out and return one. 

If you’re an unaffiliated voter and you try to cast both a Democratic and Republican primary ballot this year, both will be rejected. 

Colorado Sun issue guides

The links below will be updated as the guides are published. The Sun is only doing issue guides for certain races because of our newsroom’s resource constraints.

• Democratic primary for the 8th Congressional District

Coming soon:

• Democratic primary for U.S. Senate
• Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District
• Republican primary for the 3rd Congressional District
• Democratic primary for governor
• Republican primary for governor
• Democratic primary for attorney general 
• Democratic primary for secretary of state