(The Center Square) – More than 1.8 million Coloradans unaffiliated with a party will continue to be able to vote in a party they select during next month’s presidential primary and the June 25 state primary, a judge ruled.
The Colorado Republican Party filed a lawsuit last year challenging the state’s semi-open primary elections, approved by voters in 2016. Proposition 108, which passed with 53.2% of the vote, allows unaffiliated voters to receive a ballot with primary candidates designated by party. Voters must choose one party to vote in.
Proposition 108 also allows a political party to opt-out of the primary election process if 75% of the state’s central committees agree. The party would then select candidates by an assembly or convention limited to participants affiliated with the party.
In a 33-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer, he used the phrase “presented no evidence” nine times when referring to the state Republican Party’s lawsuit for an injunction to stop semi-open primaries.
“In short, because the Party has presented no evidence that Colorado’s semi-open primary system causes candidates to change their policy positions or that unaffiliated voters might have an outcome determinative effect on the Party’s nominees, the Party has failed to show that Proposition 108 imposes a severe burden on its associational rights,” the judge wrote.
Unaffiliated voters will continue to choose between two ballots, one with candidates from the Colorado Republican Party and one with candidates from the Colorado Democratic Party, for both the 2024 presidential primary on March 5 and the statewide primary on June 25. Only one ballot can be cast and counted.
On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case where the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump wasn’t eligible for the state’s 2024 presidential party due to alleged violations of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment. However, Colorado’s highest court included a stipulation in its ruling allowing Trump’s name to be on the ballot if the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal of the ruling. If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the ruling in Colorado, votes for Trump will not be counted, according to the secretary of state.
“We are glad that the Court today decided that Unaffiliated voters, who make up nearly 48% of all Colorado voters, can continue to make their voices heard in state primaries,” Colorado Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement. “The Colorado Republican Party’s attempt to suppress the Unaffiliated vote was stopped. As Secretary of State, I will always work to ensure that all voters – Unaffiliated, Republican, and Democrat, alike – have their voice heard in our elections.”
An email request for comment to Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams wasn’t immediately returned, but other media outlets reported his dissatisfaction with Brimmer’s ruling.
“It’s a shame this judge relied on the false testimony of RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) like Dick Wadhams but a victory that the court reaffirmed our party’s legal right to decide our internal processes for opting out,” Williams said, according to Courthouse News Service.
