Shawn Griffiths
Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash
Colorado is used to being a trailblazer in election reform, from vote-by-mail to independent redistricting. However, state voters passed on an opportunity to give voters more choice in taxpayer-funded elections in 2024.
Proposition 131 would have ended party primaries in Colorado and replaced them with a nonpartisan system in which all voters and candidates participate on a single primary ballot, regardless of party.
The top four vote-getters would then move on to the general election, where voters would rank them in order of preference using ranked choice voting.
The initiative seemed like it had plenty of momentum going into Election Day. A September poll showed support for it at 56% with an additional 8% of voters who said they were leaning toward "yes."
It also had substantial financial backing, including from its chief sponsor, Kent Thiry, and the Denver-based reform group, Unite America. In fact, money spent in the election made the list of top 10 most expensive ballot measure campaigns.
However, these early indicators of success didn’t hold up on election night. Approximately 55% of voters (at the time of this writing) voted "No" on Prop 131.
How Prop 131 Worked
Primary elections in the state are already open to independent voters, who make up nearly 40% of the electorate, but nonpartisan primaries would give them, and all voters, more choice in the process.
Party primaries limit voters' options to the candidates of one side, Republicans or Democrats. These limitations don't exist in a nonpartisan system. Voters can freely choose the candidate they want in each race.
Prop 131 would have also implemented ranked choice voting (RCV) in the general election which would have guaranteed a majority winner out of the top four candidates.
Under RCV, voters mark their first, second, third, and fourth choices. If no candidate gets a majority of first-choice selections, the last place candidate is eliminated, and their voters' next choices are applied to the vote tally.
Subsequent rounds of instant runoff are held until a single candidate has a majority of the vote.
Ranked choice voting is already in use for all voters in 50 US jurisdictions, including 2 states (Maine and Alaska), 3 counties, and 45 cities. Four of these cities are in Colorado, including Basalt, Boulder, Broomfield, and Carbondale.
Fort Collins is slated to implement RCV's use in 2026.
The reform combo of nonpartisan primaries and ranked choice voting in the general election is growing in popularity with reformers. The Top Four model is already in place in Alaska after voters approved it in 2020.
But along with Colorado, the combo is on the ballot in Nevada and Idaho. Nevada's Question 3 is a Top Five proposal and was already approved by voters once in 2022. An additional 3 states have nonpartisan primaries on the ballot.
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Partisan Roadblocks to Reform
It is unclear when Prop 131 would have gone into effect. Governor Jared Polis signed an elections bill in June that was amended to raise insurmountable barriers for the reforms offered within the initiative.
Right before the Colorado Legislature adjourned, Rep. Emily Sirota (D-Denver) added provisions to SB 210 that changed a routine elections administration bill into an attempt to thwart reform.
First, it stipulated that before the state could use RCV, 12 cities needed to adopt and use it first. These 12 cities have to meet specific demographic requirements to count.
Second, the state needs to publish a report on the use of RCV in these cities. And, before the state can adopt a nonpartisan primary system, the RCV stipulations have to be met.
Sirota's changes were added to SB 210 and passed without debate or public input.
Former House Speaker Terrance Carroll called the process “a gross abuse of power." Amber McReynolds, who once ran Denver elections, called Sirota's actions “last-minute antics” that “are what voters hate about politics.”
Sirota's legislative district is not only safe for her party, but it is also one of a majority of state House seats that was uncontested in the primary -- meaning voters in the district had no choice in the 2024 election.
According to Unite America, which regularly conducts research into the failings of partisan primary systems:
"In 2022, 54 out of 65 state house seats were effectively decided in primaries, and 42 of those had only one candidate running in the dominant party primary."
The system, as it exists under a partisan primary structure, helps bolster an incumbent protection scheme by the two major parties. Sponsors of Prop 131 say nonpartisan reform is about giving voters more choice.
Gov. Polis also criticized the way SB 210 was amended. He raised the possibility of a veto, but with the legislature adjourned, he was pressured to approve the election updates the bill was initially introduced to make.
Polis called the technical and procedural provisions important “to ensure the safe, efficient, and trustworthy administration of the 2024 and future elections.”
Prop 131 was also opposed by both major political parties.
Democratic US Senator Michael Bennet called the measure "a radical overhaul of our elections." Republican US Rep. Lauren Boehbert called RCV a scheme by moneyed interests to rig elections in Colorado.
Notably, Bennet has supported ranked choice voting in Congress – but didn’t provide details on why he opposed RCV in his own state.