How to Actually Use the Focus On The Family Voter Guide for Colorado Elections
Most people download a voter guide, glance at a couple of questions, and call it a day. That approach works fine for down-ballot races you care nothing about, but it misses the part that actually matters: cross-referencing where the guide aligns or conflicts with your own priorities before you walk into the booth. The 2022 guide for Colorado covered the state-specific ballot measures along with the national and congressional races. Colorado that cycle had some genuinely complicated propositions. Amendment JJ was the big one — a cannabis tax and regulation change that rewrote how the state taxed marijuana. Then there was Issue 130, which dealt with redistricting and independent commission structure. Plus the usual slate of U.S. House seats, statewide executive races, and judicial retention votes. The guide rated each measure and candidate from a values-based perspective, which for Focus On The Family meant a framework grounded in their stated positions on family, religious liberty, and life issues. I used it back in 2022 because I needed a quick filter for the judicial retention races. Colorado retains judges through a yes-or-no vote, and the ballot lists them in a block with no party label and almost no public visibility. The guide flagged which ones they supported and which they opposed, and that saved me about twenty minutes of research I would have otherwise spent digging through campaign finance records and past rulings.
The download is straightforward. You go to the Focus On The Family website, navigate to their voter resources or election center section, and pull up the Colorado-specific PDF for 2022. It was free and did not require an account. If the direct link has rotated since the election cycle closed, a search for "Focus On The Family 2022 voter guide Colorado" will surface the archived page. They tend to keep these around rather than taking them down immediately after Election Day. Here is the thing nobody warns you about: voter guides are directional, not comprehensive. The Focus On The Family guide told me their position on a measure, but it did not explain the legal mechanism behind Amendment JJ's tax restructuring in any detail. I had to go to the Colorado Secretary of State's ballot language page to understand what the measure actually changed in statute. The guide is a starting point, not a substitute for reading the actual text if a measure is technical or-related. Another edge case I ran into was the judicial retention ratings. The guide rated a handful of appellate and district court judges, but not every judge on the retention ballot. I found myself at a retention race that had zero guidance from the source I was using. My workaround was to check the Colorado Supreme Court's own annual report cards on judicial performance, which publish retention statistics and any recorded complaints. It is a drier read, but it filled the gap the voter guide left open.
If you want to get the most out of this guide, do not treat it as a voting script. Use it to identify which races and measures the organization cares about most, then spend your deeper research time on those items. The guide is strongest on moral and cultural issues where their position is clearly stated. It is weaker on fiscal policy, infrastructure, and procedural ballot questions where the values framing is less direct and the actual policy consequences are harder to parse from a ratings sheet alone. One practical tip: print the guide or view it on a separate device while you review the official Colorado ballot. The Secretary of State provides a voter handbook for every county that lists each measure with its sponsor and opponents. Matching the guide's ratings against the official handbook text catches discrepancies early. I caught one instance where a measure's description on a third-party site contradicted the actual ballot language, and it made me more careful about which sources I trusted for the rest of the cycle. The guide itself is a static document. It does not update once published, so any corrections or new information that emerged after the PDF went live will not appear in it. For the 2022 cycle, this was mostly a non-issue because the ballot language was fixed well in advance, but it is worth keeping in mind if you are referencing it retroactively or using it to understand a later election where similar measures reappeared.
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Bottom line: it is a useful shortcut for a specific slice of the ballot, particularly the races and measures that align with the organization's stated priorities. It is not a complete research tool. Pair it with the official ballot information, check the gaps, and you will make better decisions than if you relied on either source alone.
