Published September 26, 2026 at 6:00 AM MDT

This year’s ballot is lengthy, very lengthy, and packed with thorny topics.

To help you sort through such a dense ballot this fall, the Purplish team has a little fun explaining the complex and difficult questions you’ll have to answer.

Purplish’s live event at the Buell Public Media Center in downtown Denver is a game show (ish) in which reporters from the Colorado Capitol News Alliance took turns answering burning questions about the ballot in the Purplish hot seat. The goal: to help you better understand the many questions on Colorado’s ballot. Questions like, “Should Colorado increase penalties for fentanyl crimes or raise revenue or enshrine the right to hunt and fish into the state constitution?”

This episode of Purplish features part one of “The Great Colorado Ballot-O-Rama.” This is too much fun to pack into one episode. So we’ll have part two out next week. Enjoy!

Kevin J. Beaty

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Denverite

Colorado Sun reporter Jesse Paul plays an original song about Republican-backed ballot measures in "Purplish Live: The Great Colorado Ballot-O-Rama" at the Buell Public Media Center in Denver. Aug. 24, 2026.

Purplish is produced by CPR News and the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Startup funding for the Alliance was provided, in part, by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Purplish’s producer is Stephanie Wolf. Sound design and engineering by Shane Rumsey. Public affairs editor is Nicole Vap. The theme music is by Brad Turner. Other music in this episode comes from Universal Production Music. Megan Verlee is CPR News’ executive producer of podcasts.

Some special shout outs to Rocky Mountain PBS’ Mark Montour-Larson, Sarah Newberry and the entire tech team. Also thanks to CPR’s Brittany Werges, Cayla Montoya-Manzo and Hazel Feldstein, and all of the CCNA reporters who took the heat during the event: CPR’s Dan Boyce, The Colorado Sun’s Jennifer Brown, KUNC’s Kyle McKinnon and CPR’s John Daley.

Editor’s Note: After our Aug. 24 taping, Colorado lawmakers reached an agreement with the backers of Initiative 175and the question was pulled from the November ballot. The section on that measure has been removed from the podcast and broadcast versions of “The Great Colorado Ballot-O-Rama.”

Additionally, once the ballot is set, many of these numbers will change. So while we talk about ballot initiatives like 195 or 232 during the live event, the corresponding number you see on your ballot will be different. But the core issues reporters discussed from the hot seat remain the same.