Rank-Choice-Voting creates a climate of confusion

Guest Opinion in OP/ED of the Colorado Springs Gazette October 18, 2024

By one of our own – Candice Stutzriem

Millionaire tycoon Kent Thiry speaks of his “Tidy three step process” that promises to Save Colorado Democracy through his Proposition 131. More accurately, there are perhaps five steps involved.

Step one began in 2016 when he stood up Proposition 107/108 resulting in Open Primaries. Open primaries dealt a sucker punch to the party system. The results have been as designed. The newly empowered unaffiliated voters now exceed both parties combined, and the Colorado GOP has not elected a single candidate to a major statewide office since its inception.

In this weakened condition, Thiry now advances his next three steps to “modernize” the system, asserting the parties have “too much power” in determining our candidates for office.

At its best, the party assembly is the marketplace of ideas on full display. Candidates appear in person before thousands of delegates, sparing one on one against each other amongst a field of contenders. You see them. You know them, and know what they stand for. The votes are open and transparent; the people speak with their ballot. It is the elimination round of the political championships.

The parties Thiry is determined to destroy are essentially a free-will association of citizens who share a common set of values. Anyone can participate.

In Thiry’s worldview, there is no limit to the number of candidates that may appear on the All Candidate Primary for a single race. All the cats and dogs of every party, or no party at all, appear on the same ballot with no distinction for party preference or endorsement. Forty-eight candidates appeared on Sarah Palin’s best-worst Alaska example. Allowed to select one (1) from the endless list, voters don’t even recognize the candidates, let alone know what they stand for.

This is the “meaningful vote” Thiry is promising.

The magical majority vote in the general election is another canard. In 148 years of Colorado elections, races have been awarded on a plurality basis, whoever has the most votes wins. The majority achieved through the algorithm-driven black box operation known as Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) constructs an artificial majority.

Redistributing next-choice selections violates the one-person, one-vote ruling of the Warren Court. The intent and result is to round off the leads of the “extreme” fringe candidates and reward the lukewarm centrist who won’t stand for your values in a pinch. They won’t close the border, defend your free speech or protect your kids.

After the dust clears, voters won’t even know who they voted for. We will only be told who won. These races cannot be repeated, recounted or audited. RCV creates a climate of confusion. It creates more problems than it solves.

El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Steve Schleiker assails the misleading fiscal summary written into the Blue Book narrative. He claims the actual cost of hardware, software, staff training and public education is closer to $20 million, much of it as unfunded mandates imposed on the counties.

Further, that estimate does not include the expense of funding the transition back to the system as we know it today; when voters reject the lemon we have bought into. Former County Clerk Chuck Broerman concurs with Schleiker’s distrust of Proposition 131.

The fifth “tidy step” Thiry hasn’t mentioned is the expansion of the smoke and mirrors of RCV into more jurisdictions and to impose petition-only access to the primary ballot.

Dark money will gain ultimate control over ballot access. In the end, citizens will surrender their ability to choose our own leadership.

Let’s avoid the havoc and chaos of another losing Thiry idea. Four years after Thiry championed removal of the Gallagher amendment, the Lgislature has yet to undo the damage done by raising taxes on seniors and forcing many from their homes.

Say NO to Proposition 131 and ban Ranked Choice Voting in Colorado.

Candice Stutzriem is El Paso County Republican Canvass Board Member; co-author of three ballot initiatives 201, 202 and 278 that met petition this summer to Ban Ranked Choice Voting and is co-director of First ChoiceCounts.com, a counterinitiative political committee to stop Proposition 131.