Joe Heller, hellertoons.com

BY MEGAN SCHRADER
MSCHRADER@DENVERPOST.COM / @MEGANSCHRADER

Ballots for the June 30 primary election will hit mailboxes early next week, and Coloradans have critical decisions to make.

For 2 million unaffiliated voters, the first decision will be which political party's primary ballot to cast this year. Then, voters will consider contested races to advance candidates to the November Midterm election.

Voters can count on The Denver Post for critical election reporting, and one small part of the puzzle will be endorsements from the independent Editorial Board.

The first endorsement of the season was published this week, with the board backing state Sen. Jessie Danielson for secretary of state in the Democratic Party primary.

So what does that endorsement mean, and how did the board come to this decision?

First, the endorsement is simply the recommendation of the five members of the board. We are not telling people how to vote, but just explaining our recommendation based on what we learned through interviews, watching public debates and forums and digging into candidates' backgrounds.

The board is composed of Denver Post employees who have stepped up to serve the community by offering their opinion on public policy and politics. The board discusses candidates in each race and determines what we want to say about them. Sometimes that is a formal endorsement, like the one we made for Jessie Danielson, and sometimes the editorial will simply lay out our thoughts on the candidates and the race. Since 2022, The Denver Post has not endorsed for president, U.S. Senate or governor. We will continue that trend with this election, instead providing voters with our opinions on the candidates and their policy positions.

The endorsements will continue to be published between now and election day, with the hope of providing readers with a service using The Post's access to candidates to ask important questions of candidates and vet their resumes.

As for the question of which primary unaffiliated voters should participate in, there really is no wrong answer. If a voter feels strongly about a candidate – either love or hate – that is a perfectly good reason to pick that candidate's primary to cast a ballot.

More likely is that voters will consider the entire slate of a party's candidates to make a decision. A voter in Denver County will have the tough three-way Democratic primary for Congressional District 1 to consider the fate of Rep. Diana DeGette. In contrast, a voter in Mesa County may feel compelled to participate in the Republican primary for Congressional District 3 between Rep. Jeff Hurd and Ron Hanks.

The most important thing is that Coloradans vote. For many offices, the primary will determine who takes office, either because there is no general election opponent or because of the lop-sided demographics of a district. Despite this reality, participation in primary elections is always less than in the general election.

One reason The Post decided to endorse in the primary election this year is precisely to encourage participation and highlight the importance of this step of democracy. No matter how you vote, we hope you vote!