Your Daily Guide

👀 DOJ Has Eyes on Denver-Area Elections.

The Department of Justice notified Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold this week that its Civil Rights Division plans to send election monitors to Adams County, where one of the country’s tightest congressional races is being run. The executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association said Thursday that Douglas County officials have also been informed of plans to send monitors there. [Denver7, NPR; Denver Post 🔒]

• How to spot a monitor: The DOJ letter says monitors will wear “business casual clothing” and will not wear uniforms or pins to identify themselves.
• What are they doing? According to the DOJ, the monitors are not assigned to talk to voters or carry firearms. They are supposed to observe, take notes, and make sure polling places are complying with federal voting laws and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Where else will they be? The DOJ plans to send 1,000 monitors nationwide, which the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is calling the “largest monitoring effort” in the department’s history. Counties in Florida, Minnesota, Texas, and Washington have also reportedly received notices from the DOJ. [NPR]
• The political context: Parts of Adams County are in the hotly contested 8th Congressional District, where Democrat challenger Manny Rutinel is running a tight race against incumbent Rep. Gabe Evans. Douglas County is home to the CD4 race, where Republican incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert is challenged by Democrat Eileen Laubacher.
• Why these counties? The DOJ says they focus monitoring efforts on places with competitive elections. Adams County clerk Josh Zygielbaum, a Democrat, told NPR he was surprised to see the DOJ not reach out to Weld County, which CD8 also stretches into, and that he thinks the monitoring effort is politically motivated. A DOJ spokesperson said Adams is a priority because it is covered by Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires voters get election materials in their spoken language. Weld County is not covered by Section 203.

🛻 New Trucks to Protect Motorists

The Colorado Department of Transportation started deploying neon green crash-protection trucks to respond to wrecks on Denver metro interstates, starting with I-25, I-225 and I-70. Their purpose? Protect first responders and reduce secondary crashes by providing a big, visible, physical barrier. The trucks are specially designed to take the brunt of an impact if someone else happens to crash into the scene. [9News]

🔫 Elk Hunting Opens at Rocky Flats

You can now hunt elk for the first time at Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says there are no restrictions on eating what you catch — except maybe avoid the liver! The former nuclear weapons plant-turned-wildlife refuge has its share of skeptics, but no radionuclides were found in the elk population in USFWS-commissioned testing in 2023, leading the agency to deem the growing population safe to hunt and eat. Hunting is still not allowed on the Department of Energy legacy site in the center of the refuge. [9News]

• What was that about the liver? The 2023 study found the chemical PFOS in 100% of elk liver samples from Rocky Flats and the control sites elsewhere, so experts recommend not eating that particular organ.

🗳️ Legal Effort to Strike Amendment 87 From the Ballot Fails

A Denver judge decided this week that Amendment 87, the graduated income tax ballot measure, will remain on ballots despite a Republican activist’s legal challenge to have it removed. Michael Andre Hancock of Arapahoe County, who is a completely different person from former mayor Michael Hancock, filed a lawsuit in September arguing that Amendment 87’s signature-gatherers did not follow state registration rules, and the signatures they collected should have been invalidated. The judge ruled that state law does not allow the Secretary of State’s Office to block a measure because of registration issues with petition circulators. Hancock’s lawyers say they plan to appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court. [Colorado Sun, Denver7]

☑️ Denver Ballot Measures, Explained

It’s no secret that we’ve got a beefy ballot this year, and some of the Denver-specific measures on there are confusing! Today, Denver Post city government reporter Elliott Wenzler joins host Bree Davies to break down the issues that only Denverites will be voting on. [City Cast Denver 🎧]