Just when you think a politician can’t stoop any lower, someone ratchets down the limbo pole. In the waning days of the legislative session, a cadre of political insiders slipped an amendment that attempts to undermine our constitutional right to vote on a ballot measure to reform our elections. Yes, they were that brazen.    

In defending the move, Rep. Emily Sirota offered a tone-deaf defense of a system that benefits politicians like her, saying “I really think this ballot measure is a solution in search of a problem.” How about letting the voters make that determination?

She later said the following: “I don’t support billionaires and millionaires spending millions of their own money to radically overhaul our stellar election process.”

First and foremost, Colorado runs stellar elections — but it’s clear our current party-centered system produces outcomes not reflective or inclusive of the majority of voters.

It’s also ironic a lawmaker would call out funders of a measure she opposes, but happily accepts — or is mum — on donors to candidates and issues she supports.

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Furthermore, the framing of the ballot initiative as one pushed solely by wealthy political operatives ignores the fact the measure is also supported by a number of nonprofit advocacy organizations, including an organization I am part of, Veterans for All Voters. Her characterization of the measure may be politically expedient, but it dismisses the broad base of support the reform has among Coloradans, including the hundreds of thousands of unaffiliated veteran voters in the state who are not “billionaires and millionaires.” They are fed up with insider partisan politics as usual. 

The reality is the ballot measure political insiders tried to undermine with their midnight amendment is a solution to a big problem. Currently, 2.3 million Coloradans have little say in their representation, with lightly contested, partisan primaries deciding who is ultimately elected in the overwhelming majority of the state.     

Initiative 310 will ask voters in November to open Colorado’s primaries to all voters and allow candidates of all parties to run against each other via a single election, rather than in separate, semi-closed primaries. Opening the primaries would give every Coloradan the freedom to vote for any candidate, regardless of party, in every taxpayer-paid election.

The primary would advance four candidates to the general election, where voters would rank them in order of preference. In this system, a candidate is required to win a majority to take office. Currently, candidates can take office winning less than the majority, a system that incentivizes rallying the political extremes rather than winning the majority of voters. 

Both of these electoral reforms are extremely popular with voters, so it’s no wonder those who benefit from the status quo engaged in underhanded tactics to block it.

A solution in search of a problem? I’ll spell it out: Here are the ways Colorado’s current primary system quashes competition and silences your voice:

In races for U.S. Congress and state offices,  the winner in 75% of Colorado’s U.S. House races and 82% of state House races was effectively decided in the low-turnout June 25 primary — months before the November general election. That’s because most districts in Colorado are so skewed toward Democrats or Republicans that general elections are foregone conclusions. Clearly, Colorado has a competition problem.

Because there’s no general election competition in most of these races, only votes cast in the dominant party’s primary — where turnout averages a dismal 23% since 2010 — have any impact on the outcome. That’s how we end up with a mere 13% of Colorado voters casting ballots in consequential elections for state House in 2022. If you’re a Republican in the 1st Congressional District in Denver, or a Democrat in the 4th Congressional District spanning from Douglas County to Weld County and the eastern plains, you know this problem well. You might cast a ballot in the general election, but your vote has essentially no impact on the outcome. Clearly, Colorado has a representation problem.

Further compounding the competition problem, not only do most general-election votes not matter, in most “safe” seats this year, only one candidate is running in the primary. This denies 2.3 million Colorado voters — 50% of eligible voters — any say in who will represent them in Congress or the state legislature this year. Rep. Sirota is running in one of those safe seats with no primary competition, which helps explain why she led the assault on our citizens initiative process.    

Colorado voters, not Colorado politicians, deserve the right to decide how elections should be run.

Initiative 310 is a solution to a problem caused by politicians of both parties seeking to protect their own interests, first and foremost. Let’s let the voters decide instead.

Tony Haas is a 21-year veteran of the U.S. Army. He is currently serving as the Colorado state task force lead for Veterans for All Voters, an organization that is working build and mobilize a community of military veterans to advocate for election innovations that unlock competition, make our politics less polarizing, and our government more effective.