{"id":236965,"date":"2024-07-04T10:44:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T14:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=236965"},"modified":"2024-07-04T10:44:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T14:44:20","slug":"rank-choice-voting-threatens-colorado-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=236965","title":{"rendered":"<h2>Rank Choice Voting Threatens Colorado Elections<\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Renee Parsons\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">With approach of the 2024 election, voter integrity continues to be an ongoing problem since a majority of the country is still operating under rules adopted during the Covid pandemic.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In Colorado,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>there is a proposed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coloradosos.gov\/pubs\/elections\/Initiatives\/titleBoard\/filings\/2023-2024\/310OriginalFinal.pdf\"><span class=\"s2\">State Initiative 310<\/span><\/a> that would further threaten the integrity of the American sacrosanct \u2018one person\/one vote\u2019 principle. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A massive, monumental threat to voter integrity in Colorado in the form of Ranked Choice Voting promises to dramatically alter election results and mislead how voters make their choices from a field of bipartisan qualified candidates. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If adopted, SI 310, otherwise known as Rank Choice Voting, would eliminate any opportunity to restore election integrity as an ultimate disaster creating a weakening of both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cpr.org\/2024\/05\/31\/colorado-ranked-choice-voting\/\"><span class=\"s2\">political parties<\/span><\/a> in the State.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sos.state.co.us\/pubs\/elections\/Initiatives\/titleBoard\/results\/2023-2024\/310Results.html\"><span class=\"s2\">Petitions<\/span><\/a> needing 125,000 valid signatures to place SI 310 on the November ballot are currently circulating throughout the State. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As the State GOP continues to wrestle with fierce internal party squabbles after a disappointing June primary, passage of SI 310 would especially focus on derailing the GOP which has been attempting to regain the political initiative since the unanimous Supreme Court decision on the Fourteenth Amendment. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Support for RCV comes from the same <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cpr.org\/2024\/06\/11\/initiative-310-ranked-choice-voting-colorado-elections-journey-to-november-ballot\/\"><span class=\"s2\">Billionaire Uniparty class<\/span><\/a> who sponsored the effort to remove Donald Trump from the statewide Presidential ballot as it continues to cling to power creating the June primary fiasco. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If in fact the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coloradopolitics.com\/elections\/2024\/el-paso-county-gop-censures-vickie-tonkins-calls-for-dave-williams-removal-in-disputed-meeting\/article_396f534e-388c-11ef-8126-cb937fc08b98.html?3nWZDYteJZ=JxjGP1S3D5MMHdJTEP4EVzjWSLmx85ypyJVc9rHHVk9VryCqDtuaGRZccu15vndtmkF90nXZCgHPv4nNjPmugDWYSxRe81R64YeQxMpPn4wH5k1DvcWZYfghkURXtmhAnzkFuLf4W5yiWqt6rdVA2Y\"><span class=\"s2\">disputed removal<\/span><\/a> of State GOP Chair Dave Williams, among other contentious issues, continues for the next few months, the party must rise above the rancor and come together to permanently defeat SI 310. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The future of building the State\u2019s GOP membership into an effective America First political agenda as well as laying the foundation for attracting and cultivating powerful political voices as GOP candidates for future electoral campaigns is at stake.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The fact that the current electoral system which allows cross-over voters in a partisan primary to which the voter is not a member would, by necessity, be eliminated in favor of the RCV further muddying and unnecessarily complicating the state\u2019s primary election process. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>A clever and complicated election fraud scam, RCV intent is to steal your vote with no guarantee that a favored candidate will be elected.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The final analysis is that an RCV election will not be a true reflection of the will of the people.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">For instance, here\u2019s a synopsis of how it would work:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>if there are six candidates for a State Senate seat, all of those candidates will be listed.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Just as all voters in that District, not just the Dems or Republicans, will \u2018rank\u2019 their favorite candidates.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>That initial ranking must include at least five of those candidates and at least one candidate must have <\/span><span class=\"s2\">received 50%<\/span><span class=\"s1\"> of the vote. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If there is no 50% candidate on the first round, the vote continues until four candidates remain for the November general election.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Those four final candidates may be all Democrats or all Republicans or any other combination that may not reflect the constituency of that District.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>None of those candidates need be an official representative of any political party.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If that sounds confusing, that\u2019s because it is \u2013 deliberately so.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>While its proponents pretend that RCV is necessary to modernize democracy or reform the current bipartisan electoral primary, that is not the intent of RCV. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In Alaska which adopted RCV in 2020, Alaskans for Honest Election have collected <a href=\"https:\/\/alaskawatchman.com\/2024\/01\/13\/nearly-43000-petition-signatures-turned-in-to-overturn-ranked-choice-voting\/\"><span class=\"s2\">43,000 petition signatures<\/span><\/a> to remove RCV from their state\u2019s electoral process.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In 2019, the Maine legislature passed a bill establishing RCV, the State\u2019s GOP filed a referendum petition to repeal, the state\u2019s Democratic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mainepublic.org\/politics\/2020-08-28\/maine-secretary-of-state-will-appeal-ruling-on-ranked-choice-voting-citizen-initiative\"><span class=\"s2\">Secretary of State<\/span><\/a> denied the motion. The RCV continues to experience a turbulent future in Maine.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In 2022, Tennessee, Florida, Idaho, Montana and South Dakota all banned RCV.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>In 2024, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Oklahoma banned <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/06\/05\/nx-s1-4969563\/ranked-choice-voting-bans\"><span class=\"s2\">statewide<\/span><\/a> use of RCV.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Passage of 310 has all the potential of deliberately disenfranchising the Colorado voter as setting back the GOP\u2019s conservative political progress for another decade.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>While the State\u2019s AFL-CIO opposes 310,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>the LWV are in support.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=236965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=236965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=236965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=236965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}