Yes on Proposition 131: Colorado Desperately Needs a New Election System

Colorado is just this close to getting a new election system. Not a reform of the current system. Not a "more of the same" system with a tweak or two. An entirely brand-spanking-new system that would transform the way elections are conducted and the way politicians act once they get in office. All we need to get there is a little political courage.

Colorado desperately needs a new election system, because the current system is a clunker. It’s more than a century old. It’s outlived its usefulness. It works today to undermine the interests of the country and all of its citizens, no matter their political persuasion. It gives us political leaders who can’t lead, public-policy gridlock that makes everyone too dependent on the judiciary, and leaves significant financial problems unsolved even though everyone knows they urgently need solving. These outcomes will only worsen over time with more yelling, screaming and fighting than formulating, discussing and implementing, and political parties that endorse public policies more often because they advance the interests of their party rather than the interests of the country, thereby fostering cynicism and undermining the fabric of democracy. Most of us are sick of it. Many figure there’s no way to change it.

Elections certainly won’t change it, no matter who wins. It’s the election system that needs changing, because it’s the election system that’s the problem, not the candidates or the parties.

Proposition 131 would mean letting political parties decide for themselves how to nominate candidates. It would allow anyone from any party — or no party — to petition onto the ballot. It would mean all voters could vote for any candidate on the ballot in their district regardless of their party or the candidate’s party. In most cases, it would mean at least four candidates on the November ballot from any political party — or independents — and it would give voters the right to rank candidates in order of preference, with the first candidate to secure the support of a majority of voters declared the winner in a series of instant run-offs.

I designed this system in 2012. I secured approval from ballot access regulators to put it on the Colorado ballot in 2014. My proposal then died because I didn’t have an army of voters behind this new scheme, and I didn’t have the millions required to hire companies to collect signatures.

Today, the system I designed has been approved by voters in Alaska and Nevada. And it’s on the ballot in four states next week, in addition to Colorado.

Is there serious money behind my plan today? You bet there is. Is it “dark” money? Every contributor is identified, and the largest PAC promoting this election system discloses its largest donors, because the law requires it to. In Colorado, it’s former DaVita CEO Kent Thiry writing the biggest checks to the campaign. Some question his motives. He says he's not going to run for governor. He’s spending his money to try to revitalize democracy. Beats spending it on trying to get to Mars, in my book. It’s his millions funding those TV ads. But last I looked, Thiry gets one — and only one — vote at the ballot box.

Portia Prescott, head of the Rocky Mountain NAACP, is worried about the effect on minority candidates. She’s looking a gift horse in the mouth. After Alaska used this system in 2022, voters elected the most racially diverse group of legislators of any election in that state in at least the past sixteen years.

Some are worried about complexity. No reason to. It’s as simple as 1-2-3. 1) Let parties decide how to nominate candidates, something the government should have zero say in, because parties are private associations. 2) Let anyone petition onto the first-stage ballot, even if they’re a member of a party nominating candidates, so that voters can choose from independents, minor-party candidates, and more than one candidate nominated by the fringe of major parties. 3) Send the top four finishers to the second round in the general election, and let voters rank the candidates in order of their preference, with no candidate winning until they get the support of a majority of voters.

Some are worried about changing the current election system — which, they say, results in high voter turnout. No, it doesn’t. The turnout in the primary election is abysmal. Most student-body elections in high school get higher turnout, even without any jocks or hot cheerleaders on the ballot.

In this new system, major political parties become stronger because they’re not controlled by the noisy fringes. New candidates come out of the woodwork and run because they don’t have to kowtow to the radicals. Voters get more choices. Independents can get more attention. Minor-party candidates no longer have to ask their supporters to throw their vote away on a candidate everyone knows has no chance.

And once in office, candidates elected in this system can breathe freely and not worry about being thrown out of the far left or far right. Serious government reforms gain new currency. New voices are heard. And the rancor and name-calling that dominate today get kneecapped and begin to fade. Bridges are built in all sorts of places where today there are nothing but political minefields.

Proposition 131 strengthens political parties — big parties, small parties, green, tea, union, conservation, freedom and all other parties. It gives independent candidates a level playing field. And it gives voters vastly more choices in the general election.

On Tuesday, Colorado voters can say out loud with a clear voice what nearly everyone else already knows: The election system we have now sure isn't working. That’s sewage coursing through the country’s political veins. Congress is a dysfunctional mess, state legislatures often an embarrassment. Politics is usually not much more than a sand-throwing contest among people with the maturity of kindergartners. Good ideas go nowhere. Partisan bickering dominates everywhere — on cable news, in neighborhoods and in our minds, for god’s sake.

It's way past time for something new. Not just a tad new. Brand-spanking new. The United States has a mess on its hands. We can chip away at it, elect a new set of candidates, hope for the best and pray every night that the Founding Fathers aren’t watching. Or we can start fresh, inject new power into politics, and revitalize democracy. Call it Democracy 2.0. All it takes is one vote.

Ryan Ross, director of the Coalition for a New Colorado Election System, is a former Westword staff writer. He can be reached at [email protected].

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