About
The purpose, the data, and the team.
Our Purpose:
The reason behind this project was simply to make voting trends easier to understand within the state of Colorado. Understanding trends through time on key voting issues in Colorado counties is difficult for voters, partially because writing about them and keeping track of all of the down-ballot races is difficult for journalists. A newsroom's limited capacity to cover down-ballot races and trends with accurate graphics casts more focus on national politics and legislation. National politics and legislation, by their nature, do not cover most key issues for voters in the state of Colorado due to the level of dilution they face on Capitol Hill. Simultaneously, according to a study from the Congressional Institute alongside studies from other peer institutions, voters are increasingly feeling unheard, underrepresented and untrusting in their political systems.
Down-ballot races and their coverage matter as a resource for understanding changes in voters' states, as a means to feel heard as a part of the electoral process, and as a tool to institute trust in our election process. Journalists need help covering these stories so that readers can get the information they need to see how they're being represented by their government.
This project aims to do just that—provide resources to journalists to make covering down-ballot races easier. These graphics can be quickly embedded into a news story and understood by a reader. We are dedicated to the mission of increasing transparency around our elections, and we're proud to offer more resources to voters and journalists in that pursuit.
How our data was sourced:
All data for these visualizations was from the Colorado Secretary of States election database. Search the database of election results going back to 1908 here. Our database is derived from csv files from searching within this database. The proposition descriptions, the pass/fail result and the margin for the given down-ballot race passing (greater than 50% for statutory races and greater than 55% for constitutional races) was manually inputted.
All statewide ballot measures from 1880 to 2024 are recorded by the Colorado Secretary of State's Office and can be found here.
The Colorado Secretary of State's Office also records election results going back to 1902, linked here.
The National Conference of State Legislatures keeps track of all down-ballot races going back to 1925 for all states; their database also offers topic search functionality. Explore it here.
Meet the Developers
This project was built as a thesis project for five computer science students at Colorado College. To reach the developers shoot an email to coloradovotevisuals@gmail.com or submit site feedback via our contact form here.
Leigh Walden
Leigh is a journalism and computer science student at Colorado College from Larkspur, Colorado. With election coverage experience ranging from the Washington Desk at National Public Radio to the breaking news desk at The Denver Post, Leigh has seen firsthand some of the gaps in reporting around issues especially relevant to Colorado voters. When Leigh's not writing or coding or reporting you can probably find her under a pile of books.
Mira Giles-Pufahl
Mira is a computer science major and art minor at Colorado College from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During the summer of 2024, Mira researched Generalized Implicit Neural Representation and machine learning models called neural networks. After graduation, Mira hopes to pursue a career in video game development. They enjoy crossword puzzles, ceramics, and attending to copious amounts of house plants.
Oliver Ramirez
Oliver Ramirez is a computer science major and mathematics minor at Colorado College from Fort Collins, Colorado. He has enjoyed applying his skills developed as a computer science major and software engineer to election results that have significant impacts on his home state. He also enjoys soccer, kayaking on the rivers of the Rocky Mountains and playing card games.
Oliver Kendall
Oliver is a graduate from Colorado College, majoring in Computer Science and History. Originally from South Carolina, he has worked for several years as an outdoor educator at Elk Creek Ranch in Wyoming, leading teens on backpacking and horsemanship trips. Oliver hopes to continue pursuing computer science after college.
