A group representing unaffiliated Colorado voters is trying to raise awareness about two ballot questions that could change how political parties select their nominees.

The Coalition of Independent Voters in Colorado, a group known as CIVIC, conducted interviews with 120 unaffiliated voters in Colorado to “strengthen the voice of independents,” according to the group. The outreach was also intended to link unaffiliated voters to each other.

As of September, there were 1,044,207 active registered unaffiliated voters in Colorado, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Independents make up 34 percent of all active registered voters, making them the largest group of voters in Colorado.

CIVIC is supportive of Initiative 98, which, if approved by voters, would allow independents to participate in Colorado’s primary elections without having to affiliate with a party. That initiative would allow unaffiliated voters to choose which party’s primary to participate in.

The group also stands behind Initiative 140, which seeks to restore Colorado’s presidential primary process and allow all voters – including independents – to participate in it.

Among voters contacted by CIVIC, more than 84 percent said they felt that Colorado voters who are not registered with a political party should be allowed to participate in presidential primaries.

Not many of the independent voters surveyed by CIVIC had heard about the two ballot initiatives. But the majority – more than 85 percent – said they were in favor of the initiatives.

Just 29 percent of the unaffiliated voters interviewed had heard about the push to allow independent voters to participate in Colorado’s primary election and 30 percent had heard about the initiative that would restore a presidential primary.

Gwen Ballard, one of the founders of CIVIC, helped conduct some of the interviews of unaffiliated Colorado voters. She said the numbers point to a desire for reform.

“These are voters who definitely are not apathetic,” said Ballard, 68. “They are paying attention, they are talking with friends and family, and they are pretty disgusted with the way the political process has been operating.”

Ballard, who lives in Carbondale and is retired, said she founded CIVIC two years ago with help and inspiration from IndependentVoting.org, a national umbrella organization working to “connect and empower” unaffiliated voters, according to the group’s website.

Ballard said CIVIC has been largely inactive in the two years since it was founded, in part because the group didn’t have an initiative or an issue to rally around.

The two ballot questions have changed that in a big way.

“We were hoping to bring some publicity to the ballot initiatives by reaching out to independent people who were registered as unaffiliated in Colorado,” Ballard said. “We hoped to generate a little bit of enthusiasm about them. We learned that most people were not aware of them.”

The independent voters that Ballard has spoken to are excited about the idea of being able to participate in the primaries, in part because all taxpayers help pay for them.

“People were just very enthusiastic,” she said. “They feel as though unaffiliated voters have been shut out of the process.”

Ballard said the group also learned about the ways in which independent voters get their news. Perhaps unsurprisingly, younger voters said they got their news from the internet, while older voters said they learned about current events from newspapers.

Young voters were also more likely to report talking about politics with their friends and relatives, while older voters surveyed said they didn’t talk about politics much.

“The younger people were saying, ‘My friends get tired of hearing me talking about it,’ whereas some of the retired people, particularly those living in retirement communities, tended to avoid the subject,” she said.

At various times in her life, Ballard has been registered as a Democrat and as a Republican so she could participate in the primary process.

But, ultimately, her views on an array of subjects don’t align with either party, she said.

“The parties have too much power and I would like to restore the power to the voters,” she said. “I can’t go along with a lot of the parties’ stances on various issues. So I just can’t be a party regular. I’m too independent. I trust my mind, not theirs.”

Other unaffiliated voters Ballard has spoken to simply don’t want to be subjected to the pressure and the phone calls that come with being a member of a party.

So far, outreach to independent voters has been nonexistent this year, Ballard added.

“The candidates don’t seem to recognize that, hey, we’re out here and we’re the largest group, but we’re not monolithic,” she said. “The parties, and thus the candidates, tend to assume that we’re really conservative moderates or liberal moderates or whatever. But there’s just a whole lot of different reasons why people would register as unaffiliated.”

In an ideal world, candidates would talk to unaffiliated voters and recognize the issues that matter to them.

But Ballard said she also recognizes that independent voters are somewhat frustrating to candidates.

“We can’t be depended upon,” she said. “There is this natural tension. I think they would prefer we kind of just go away or make a choice.”