Coloradans will be asked to restore presidential primary, open taxpayer-financed primaries to unaffiliated voters

Coloradans will be asked to restore presidential primary, open taxpayer-financed primaries to unaffiliated voters

by | Aug 2016 | Elections, Let Colorado Vote, politics

Colorado voters will be asked this fall to re-institute a presidential primary and to allow unaffiliated voters to participate in taxpayer-financed primary elections without choosing a party.

The measures were approved for the ballot today by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office after verifying that enough voter signatures had been collected.

“Colorado voters value independence and want elections that encourage participation,” said Kent Thiry, Let Colorado Vote Campaign Chair and CEO of DaVita. “Only 5% of voters participated in the March caucuses, which is not a sign of a healthy democracy. Our initiatives will fix that and allow more than 1 million unaffiliated voters to participate in elections that they currently pay for, but thus far have been excluded from.”

The two measures would change state law (as opposed to amending the constitution):

  • Initiative 140, which will restore a presidential primary and allow unaffiliated voters to participate without affiliating with a party;
  • Initiative 98, which will allow the state’s more than 1 million unaffiliated voters to participate in taxpayer-financed primary elections without affiliating with a party. 

“We believe, strongly, that allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in taxpayer funded primary elections is a matter of fairness,” said John Hereford, Let Colorado Vote Vice Chair and founder of Oak Leaf Energy Partners. “Engaging a broader cross-section of the voting spectrum in primaries will make our politicians more responsive to the center and not just the extreme wings of their respective parties.”

Colorado leads the nation in the growth of unaffiliated – or independent – voters since 2008, and they now make up 36% of all voters in the state.

But unaffiliated voters in Colorado face barriers that don’t exist in most other states. Colorado is among a minority of states that excludes unaffiliated voters from taxpayer-financed primary elections, and history shows that this system discourages participation.

Turnout for Colorado’s primary elections has been dropping since 2010, and just 1 in 5 voters participated in the state’s June primary.

The current primary does not include the presidential race, which is handled through a caucus system with preference polls rather than official ballots. Fewer than 190,000 of the state’s 3 million voters participated in the March caucuses.

Other campaign Vice Chairs are: Kelly Brough, President/CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber; Don Childears, President/CEO of the Colorado Bankers Association; Cole Finegan, partner at Hogan Lovells US; and Mike Kopp, executive director of Colorado Concern.

Let Colorado Vote is supported by a diverse array of individuals and organizations, including: Gov. John Hickenlooper; former Govs. Bill Ritter, Bill Owens, Roy Romer and Dick Lamm; former U.S. Sens. Mark Udall and Hank Brown; Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers; former Transportation Secretary Federico Peña; and civic and business groups, including: the Denver Metro Chamber, Colorado Concern, the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, Club 20, the Colorado Association of Realtors, the Colorado Contractors Association, the Metro Mayors Caucus, Progressive 15, the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union and the Vail Valley Partnership.

For additional information, visit: www.letcovote2016.com. 

Have you heard the news?

Have you heard the news?

by | Aug 2016 | Campaign, Tobacco Tax

We’re on the ballot!

The Colorado Secretary of State has approved our petitions for the November ballot. Now the hard work begins.

Colorado Cigarette Tax

Colorado voters will be asked this November to increase the cigarette tax to reduce smoking, save lives and provide funding for medical research and health care services for kids, veterans, and those most affected by smoking. The Colorado Secretary of State Office today approved the measure after determining that enough voter signatures were submitted.

We need to stay strong in our resolve if we’re going to win this campaign. While we haven’t seen any organized opposition from the tobacco industry yet, we expect they will show up with a vocal (and well funded) campaign any day now.

Cigarettes kill more than 5,000 Coloradans every year, and the tobacco industry will stop at nothing to target kids for lifelong addiction. Big Tobacco, in fighting a similar tax increase in California, has already spent almost $17 million. We should expect to see the same here.

Last year cigarette sales increased in Colorado for the first time in over a decade. Increasing the cigarette tax is a proven way to fight this deadly problem and keep more kids from starting to smoke. 

Isaac Slade at the Great Divide Brewery

Isaac Slade at the Great Divide Brewery

by | Jul 2016 | Beer, Elections, Let Colorado Vote

Isaac Slade for Let Colorado ote

Like Isaac Slade says: “The caucus system is old fashioned, and we have outgrown it, and we’re ready to join the national conversation for something better.”

What’s better than brews and great live music? We had both earlier this summer at a campaign fundraiser for Let Colorado Vote. Isaac Slade, lead singer of The Fray, headlined the event at the Great Divide Brewery in Denver, giving a wonderful intimate performance, including one song un-mic’d. The Denver native talked about why he loves Colorado and why he supports the Let Colorado Vote initiatives, which seek to increase participation in primary elections in Colorado. Thanks to the folks at Great Divide for hosting the event. We’ll be doing more to get the word out about the initiatives as we get closer to the election. See a video of Isaac on the Let Colorado Vote Facebook page and learn more about the campaign here.

Introducing the Peak Pedalers

Introducing the Peak Pedalers

by | Jun 2016 | BIkes, Ride The Rockies

The 31st annual Ride the Rockies race starts Sunday in Carbondale and OnSight Public Affairs will be there, pedaling, taking photos, managing social media and sharing stories. We love this partnership, now in its third year, with the Denver Post Community Foundation and other sponsors. What an amazing way to see our beautiful state! It’s also about community and supporting great causes. This year, we’re engaging more of the RTR community with guest blogs written by the Peak Pedaler team. Jessica from Littleton, Scott from Richardson TX, Paul from Olathe and Diane from Albuquerque are our guest bloggers who are riding the race and sharing stories. Read more about them here and enjoy their blog posts! We’ll be there for 6 days of riding over roughly 400 miles and more than 29,00 feet in elevation gain, ending Friday in Fort Collins.