Ranked choice voting promises to shake up Colorado elections
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The Colorado Democratic and Republican Parties are asking voters to say no to Proposition 131, while voters not affiliated with either party say it could give them more options.
RELATED: Issue 131- Establishing All‑Candidate Primary and Ranked Choice Voting General Elections
According to the State Ballot Information Booklet, a 'Yes' vote on Prop. 131 would implement ranked choice voting for all Colorado elections. Instead of picking just one candidate, voters would rank all the candidates with the top four advancing to the general election. The general election ballot would require voters to rank all four candidates from most to least preferred.
This would only impact these elections:
- U.S. Senator
- U.S. Representative
- Governor and Lieutenant Governor
- Secretary of State
- State Treasurer
- State Attorney General
- Member of the State Board of Education
- Regent of the University of Colorado
- State Senator
- State Representative
It would not change presidential, county, or city elections.
The City of Boulder has already implemented the practice for their 2023 Mayoral election.
A 'No' vote would keep Colorado's voting system the same.
A little more than half of all registered voters in El Paso County are unaffiliated with either political party.
KRDO13 caught up with several independent El Paso County voters to hear what they had to say about making rank choice voting the standard state-wide.
"Having the option to vote for both parties doesn't tie it to one choice, and gives you the options to actually look into every candidate and make a really informed decision. Regardless of if they're red or blue," Braden Fridell told KRDO13.
"I think it would make way for more third-party candidates or more moderate candidates instead of voting on the fringes," Vincent Prins told KRDO13.
The El Paso Republican Party, and Colorado State GOP, say ranked-choice voting will make voting overly complex and lead to lower turnout.
Rob Rogers, the vice chairman for the El Paso County Democratic Party, told KRDO13, "We [the Colorado Democratic Party] just feel like it would cause some voter turnout issues that, I think need to be overcome before we roll something out at scale."
Rogers denied claims that the Democratic Party was against ranked-choice voting because they wanted to keep control of the party's primary. Rogers said it was because ranked-choice voting has led to lower voter turnout and more invalidated ballots.
Hear what advocates campaigning for Prop 131 and ranked-choice voting here.
