CO Dueling Proposals on How Parties Nominate Candidates

Thanks to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News for this post.

Colorado now has Closed Primary elections, and generally only the Democratic and Republican Parties have Primary elections, although in rare cases qualified minor parties also have them. Currently, Colorado has no Presidential Primaries

An initiative is circulating that would amend the law so that independent voters could vote in a Special Primary ballot that includes the names of all candidates. The initiative says if a party doesn’t like that, and if three-fourths of the members of the State Central Committee choose to nominate for all office by a Party Meeting instead of a Primary, that is allowed. However, the proponents know that it is very difficult for any Party to pass anything that controversial with a three-fourths vote.

CLICK HERE to read the seven page (PDF) of the Initiative, #98 Final Draft.

Another initiative is circulating that would provide for a Presidential Primary. It says that independents could vote in any Party’s Presidential Primary.

CLICK HERE to read the seven page (PDF) of the Initiative, #140 Final Draft.

Finally, a bill, HB 1454, in the legislature would set up a Presidential Primary. It provides that all independent voters would be free to temporarily join a Party, and then they could vote in that Party’s Presidential Primary

Independent voters, called "temporary affiliated elector", could vote in a Presidential Primary, by asking for a Party's Presidential Primary ballot 45 days before a Primary, they would be deemed to be members of that party, but their Party membership would automatically expire 30 days after the Primary.

The bill passed the House Committee that handles election law bills on April 25, and it passed the House Appropriations Committee on April 28. However, it was amended on April 28 to say that if any initiative on the subject of Presidential Primaries passes in November, that initiative is automatically amended to say that any party is free to choose to nominate for all office by Party meeting instead of by Primary.

Proponents of the bill inserted this amendment to help defeat the Presidential Primary initiative if it gets on the ballot. Proponents of the bill say that the Presidential Primary initiative idea would cost far too much money. This is because all registered voters in Colorado automatically receive ballots in the postal mail, and proponents of the bill say that if the initiative passes, thousands of ballots would need to be mailed to all independents with the envelope including both a Democratic ballot and a Republican ballot, and many or most of those ballots would never be returned and would be wasted. By contrast, the bill requires independents to request a Party's Presidential Primary ballot, so fewer ballots would need to be printed and mailed.

CLICK HERE to read the 20 page (PDF) text of HB 1454.











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