The Colorado Sun reports that Kent Thiry, former CEO of the Fortune 500 company DaVita, is behind the new ballot initiative which would make Colorado’s primaries open and enact ranked-choice voting for general elections in the state.
Thiry says the measure “is about bringing voice and choice back to the people. Whether they’re Democrats, Republicans or independents, they need their voice and choice back.”
An open primary means all candidates running for elective office would run on a single ballot, regardless of their party affiliation. The four candidates who receive the most votes would advance to the general election.
I will oppose this effort to rig our electoral system in Colorado with everything I have. Ranked choice voting is a scheme launched by well-moneyed interests who are only concerned with their own power and not giving Coloradans a choice at the ballot box.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) November 20, 2023
Grassroots Republican… https://t.co/9Udzgo7709
Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R) — who will be up for re-election in 2024 — is not happy about the open primary measure.
[Note: In 2022, Boebert narrowly defeated Democrat Adam Frisch by only 546 votes. She blamed her close call on “ballot harvesting” — a GOP slur for third-party collection of absentee ballots. Boebert will face Frisch again in 2024.]
Boebert replied to the open primary measure: “I will oppose this effort to rig our electoral system in Colorado with everything I have. Ranked choice voting is a scheme launched by well-moneyed interests who are only concerned with their own power and not giving Coloradans a choice at the ballot box.”
She added: “Grassroots Republican voters deserve to choose our GOP candidates and they will reject this blatant attempt to diminish their voices.”
#RankedChoiceVoting coming to an election near you🫵Say NO to it; keep it one man/one vote winner-take-all like it’s always been #ElectionIntegrity #VoterIntegrity #followthemoney see who’s backing the RCV scheme #OregonGOP & #WascoCountyGOP thx for having me! pic.twitter.com/eKo3BmlvQR
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) October 25, 2023
Colorado wouldn’t be the first state with an open primary. Former Alaska governor and the 2008 Vice Presidential GOP candidate Sarah Palin has been fighting against open primaries since she lost the 2022 special election for the congressional seat left vacant after the death of Alaska’s at-large congressman Don Young.
Even with the endorsement of Trump, Palin lost the special election (to fill the remainder of Young’s term) to Democrat Mary Peltola — and lost the general election in November to Peltola.
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