DENVER (KOAA) — Colorado spent just over $4 million producing and distributing its 2026 Blue Book, the voter information guide mailed to registered voters ahead of the November election, according to Colorado Legislative Council Staff.
The publication, which explains statewide ballot measures and their potential financial impacts, is designed to help voters understand what they are being asked to decide before casting their ballots. Julia Jackson, a research manager with the Colorado Legislative Council Staff, said the agency printed approximately 2.245 million copies of this year's Blue Book. About 2.1 million were mailed to voters.
"We spent just over $4 million this year," Jackson explained. "And that includes the newspaper publication, which is a not insignificant chunk of that, postage, printing."
The total cost includes printing, postage, translation and publishing ballot information in newspapers. Jackson said printing and paper account for the largest portion of the expense. The Blue Book is mailed once per household rather than to each individual registered voter. Any Colorado household with at least one registered voter should receive a copy. This year's edition is also the largest the state has produced, although Jackson said it is only slightly larger than the 2024 publication.
The bilingual English-Spanish edition is 256 pages, or 260 pages when including the covers. The English-only edition, which most counties receive, is 128 pages. The state has produced ballot information pamphlets since 1954, around the time the Legislative Council Staff was established as a nonpartisan agency supporting the state legislature.
In 1994, Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment requiring the state to mail the publications to registered voters. That change followed the passage of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, or TABOR, which established requirements for presenting certain tax measures to voters. Jackson said the research process for the Blue Book begins in May. Staff members interview supporters and opponents of ballot measures, conduct independent research and accept public comments before publishing the final guide in September. The effort involves a writing team of three to four people, along with another five to six people reviewing each measure. Jackson said there is some overlap between those groups, and additional staff members help with the publication's online accessibility, formatting and other production work.
The Legislative Council Staff has approximately 120 employees, according to Jackson, with an estimated 60 to 80 involved in some capacity with producing the Blue Book. Jackson said the goal is to provide voters with an impartial explanation of what each ballot measure would do, rather than tell them how to vote.
"We're not gonna tell people how to vote. Ads are for that. Campaigns are for that, but we're going to tell you what your vote does," Jackson added.
The guide includes yes and no statements outlining arguments from both sides of each measure, bullet points summarizing key information and more detailed explanations. Additional information, including full fiscal analyses, is available online here.
Jackson encouraged voters who are still undecided to take advantage of the information before completing their ballots.
"I really believe in our product," Jackson said. "I think that we do a lot of research and do our best to make that research as clear and understandable as possible."
She said having Colorado's mail-in voting system gives voters an opportunity to review the information at home rather than trying to remember the details while at a polling location.
"It's great to vote in Colorado because you have your vote in your house," Jackson said. "You can open it up and take that time to look through each measure and look online and look at the printed material."
The 2026 Colorado Blue Book is available online at LEG.colorado.gov/bluebook.
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