Why Colorado Unaffiliated Voters Must Cast June Primary Ballots

The June heat hits the dashboard of your truck before you even turn the key, but the real stagnation isn’t in the temperature. It’s in the mailbox. That primary ballot sits there, unopened, next to the utility bills and the junk mail you’re already ignoring. You voted in November. You voted in 2022. You probably voted in 2020. But June? June is where the real work happens, and right now, hundreds of thousands of Coloradans are letting it slide.

This isn’t a mystery of logistics. Colorado has one of the most accessible election systems in the country. Ballots are mailed. Registration is a breeze. The challenge isn’t that voting is hard; it’s that we’ve convinced ourselves it doesn’t matter.

Let’s look at the numbers. Unaffiliated voters make up more than half of Colorado’s electorate. That is the majority of us. Yet, a significant chunk of that group skips the primary. They treat it like a polite suggestion rather than the decisive filter for November’s general election.

Here is the blunt truth: for many races, the primary winner is the November winner. If you skip the primary, you aren’t just saving yourself an hour of voting. You are handing the keys to someone else. You are letting those who do show up in June dictate the choices you’ll be forced to accept in November.

The article points out that this is especially critical for unaffiliated voters. Colorado law lets you pick a party’s primary ballot — Democratic or Republican — without changing your status. You don’t have to join the party. You don’t have to become a political junkie. You just have to pick a lane and cast a vote. It’s that simple. And yet, the perception persists that primary elections are low-stakes affairs for insiders. That’s wrong.

If your priorities are housing, education, or public safety, you need to understand that these issues are often settled before the general election even starts. The candidate who wins the nomination in June is frequently the one who takes the office in November. Skipping the primary means you’re not influencing the field; you’re just reacting to it.

This isn’t about partisan loyalty. It’s about representation. Broader participation means elections reflect the actual community, not just the most vocal or motivated subset of it. It means more perspectives are heard. It means your voice isn’t drowned out by those who show up because they have to, or because they’re running for office.

The article urges every eligible voter, especially those who vote in November but ignore the primary, to take a closer look. You don’t need to know everything. You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to use the voice you already have.

The practical impact? If you skip this, you’re accepting the candidates of others. You’re betting that those who vote in June know what they’re doing better than you do. And in a system where the primary often decides the race, that’s a risky bet.

The bottom line is simple. The ballot is in your mailbox. It’s for you. Use it.