Do legislator votes matter in elections? Not enough! It’s a challenge to figure out whether legislators vote on bills the way they say they will, whether they vote with their party, where they fall on a far left to far right scale, or whether they voted on bills at all.

State Rep. Ron Hanks, a Republican representing HD-60 from Canon City, has top line in the GOP United States Senate primary. He supports former President Donald Trump and Mesa County clerk Tina Peters, who’s running for Secretary of State. Hanks and Peters promote the premise that Trump, not President Joe Biden, won the 2020 election.

A look at all final votes on bills that passed the 2022 General Assembly shows that Hanks is generally a NO kind of guy. He was also a missing kind of guy.

His committee vote totals show he voted YES on 22 bills, NO on 25 bills and missed 57 votes in the committees Energy and Environment, Health and Insurance and Public and Behavioral Health and Human Services.

His voting record was somewhat more frequent in the Appropriations committee that makes funding decisions on legislation. He voted YES on 70 bills, NO on 196, and missed only 31 votes.

His final, third-reading vote record is 129 YES votes, 303 NO votes and 91 missed votes.

When he was available to vote, he generally displayed his conservative bona fides. Let’s take election bills as one area in which he has many opinions. He voted NO on two campaign finance bills. One restricts school board election contributions and the other increases transparency of ballot initiative funding. Though he asserts that Colorado’s elections are flawed, he voted NO to take increased election security measures. Election officials throughout the state have received threats to their well-being, but Hanks voted NO on protections for voting officials. He also voted NO on the “Vote without Fear Act” that prohibits open carry of firearms within 100 feet of a ballot box or other election facilities.

Republicans in general have taken shots at Democrats for their legislative record on crime. But this is one category where Hanks has voted with Democrats. He voted YES on a bill that prohibits sexual acts without consent and YES on safe reporting of assaults on sex workers. He also supported legislation to prevent human trafficking, splitting with Rep. Patrick Neville, former minority leader of the House Republicans.

Hanks voted with Democrats on restitution services for victims, the Victims Rights Act. He also voted YES to crack down on intimidating witnesses. He broke with Democrats on legislation to invest in community safety programs, including $15 million to enable local entities to take steps for crime prevention. He voted NO on the fentanyl bill and to eliminate court-ordered restitution to victims paid by juveniles.

As a representative of rural Colorado, Hanks’ positions on water and wildfire issues are significant. He voted NO on $20 million for wildfire prevention and watershed restoration. He also voted NO on securing pond water rights for fire suppression.

Like his fellow conservatives, he voted NO on a $24 million investment in clean water for children in schools and daycare that will replace lead pipes.

Education policy is contentious for both Democrats and Republicans. When it comes to charter and other alternative schools, Republicans and some Democrats are on the same page. So Hanks voted YES with Speaker Alec Garnett on alternative governance for innovation schools. This vote puts him against local control of school boards. He also voted YES on bringing more special education students to charter schools.

On investments in education or school finance, he voted NO. He voted NO on changing the school finance formula to help at-risk kids, NO on school services for behavioral health, NO on a ballot initiative to pay for healthy meals for all K-12 school kids, NO on promoting crisis services for kids, NO on using community schools as the go-to for turnaround school situations, and NO on preventing Title IX misconduct.

As a conservative he voted NO to $1 million to prevent identity violence in schools, and he voted NO to pitch $184 million into the school finance act to lower the “negative factor” and match inflation for per-student education spending. He wants teacher performance evaluation to return to pre-COVID rules despite the ups and downs of the epidemic.

Hanks’ record is ultra conservative when he votes. So if that’s what voters want, that’s what they’ll get, if he shows up to deliver.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.