DENVER — Colorado voters rejected a major effort to overhaul the way future elections will play out in the state as Proposition 131 was projected to fail Thursday.
Decision Desk HQ projected Proposition 131 would fail as the Colorado Secretary of State's website showed unofficial results of 54.88% against and 45.12% for the proposition.
- Decision Desk HQ is tracking Colorado Congressional races and ballot measures in the interactive map below.
Prop 131 in Colorado, placed on the ballot by a citizen initiative, aimed to/will change the way voters select candidates in a primary and later during general elections.
In an all-candidate primary, voters — regardless of their political affiliation — would select from candidates from all parties on the same ballot.
The top four candidates would then advance to the general election, who would be ranked by voters with a winner being selected after multiple vote counts, according to Denver Decides.
Prop 131’s new election process would have impact races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Colorado governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, among other statewide offices.
Colorado’s current “semi-closed” election process allows for registered voters of a party and unaffiliated voters to vote in that party’s primary.
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The top four vote-getters in the all-candidate primary would then move on to the general election, where voters would rank their choices in order of preference.
With ranked-choice voting, voters rank the candidates by preference. A candidate needs a majority, over 50%, to be declared the winner.
If no candidate receives that in the first round, the candidate with the lowest vote total is eliminated. Voters who supported the candidate who was eliminated would still have their ballot counted. Their vote would just go to their next choice.
This process continues until someone gets a majority of the vote.
Several key Colorado lawmakers from both parties were in support of Prop 131 including, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, Governor Polis, both Denver and Aurora’s mayors and former Congressman Ken Buck.
Prop 131 would not apply to presidential races or voting for district attorney or other local government offices.
The change would have taken effect in 2026.
“Colorado’s gold-standard elections are the best in the country. Proposition 131 would have sacrificed the safety and security of our election system for the whims of special interests and big corporations whose pay-to-play tactics would have flooded the state with even more dark money,” said Shad Murib, chair of the Colorado Democratic Party on Tuesday evening. “We look forward to a more thoughtful and community-driven conversation about opportunities to safeguard our democracy and reduce the influence of dark money in our politics.”
Linda Templin, executive director of Ranked Choice Voting For Colorado, also issued a statement.
“It is exciting that the people of Colorado voted down a measure that would have limited ballot access for grassroots candidates," she said. "It was unfortunate that Ranked Choice Voting was not its own measure. We look forward to building a more responsive democracy in local elections and bringing a clean RCV measure in the future.”
The Institute for Responsive Government — a nonprofit that works to "make government more efficient, accessible, and responsive to the needs of real human beings — said states looking at ranked choice voting "should have a well-funded, well-designed, and sustained implementation plan — and critically, buy-in from the election administrators who will oversee its roll-out — to counteract these challenges," said Sam Oliker-Friedland, executive director of the Insitute for Responsive Government.
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