"Jungle" primaries and Ranked Choice Voting offer a glimpse at possible improvements to a broken electoral system

With Colorado’s presidential primaries and Super Tuesday quickly approaching, I can’t help but think our system is irreparably broken. Political polarization has significant consequences for governance and democracy. It hinders cooperation and compromise between political officials, leading to legislative gridlock and government dysfunction. Extreme polarization undermines trust in democratic institutions and contributes to social fragmentation and unrest.

But how can we address this? Colorado has made good progress in improving our election process. In 2016, voters agreed to allow unaffiliated voters to participate in either Democratic or Republican primaries. That effort took effect in 2018, and unaffiliated voters now make up nearly half of the state’s registered voters. In 2018, two constitutional changes created independent commissions to redraw boundaries for Congress and the state legislature every 10 years.

As a result, a growing number of people in both Eagle County and across the state are unaffiliated voters. Many unaffiliated – and likely affiliated – voters are looking for a new voting option. There is statewide momentum toward offering one. There is a citizen’s initiative that would replace our party-driven primaries completely with what’s known as a “jungle” primary and then completely replace our general elections with ranked-choice voting (RCV).

Three versions of the statewide proposal were recently filed. Here’s what each would do:

• Initiative 98 would move Colorado to an open primary system in the races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, secretary of state, treasurer, attorney general, legislature, state Board of Education, and University of Colorado regent.
• Initiative 99 would do everything that Initiative 98 does while also moving Colorado’s presidential general election to a ranked-choice voting election.
• Initiative 100 would only enact the open primary system for the races described in Initiative 98 and switch all those general elections to ranked-choice voting. It would not affect the presidential contest.

Bonus: both parties dislike it. And if both parties dislike it, it might have potential for real change.

In most U.S. elections, a candidate can win without receiving a majority of votes cast and is often motivated to attack their opponents rather than make a compelling case to the public. Instead of voting for a single candidate, RCV allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate earns a majority after counting first choices, the last-place candidate is eliminated and voters for the eliminated candidate then have their ballot count for their next choice. The process repeats until one candidate earns a majority. By rewarding candidates for appealing to a broad swath of voters, RCV can discourage extreme partisanship, incent a greater focus on substantive issues, and ensure that election winners better reflect the views of most voters.

RCV is the fastest-growing election reform in America. As of July 2023, RCV has reached 51 jurisdictions home to 13 million voters, including Basalt, Boulder, Broomfield, Carbondale, and Telluride here in Colorado.

"Ranked Choice Voting is one of the most promising reform options for reducing our crippling levels of political polarization in the United States. As more and more American cities (and now states) adopt RCV, voters are finding that they like its democratic features. RCV offers voters more choice, more voice, less negative campaigns, and more broadly appealing outcomes, since winners must ultimately win support from a majority of voters." said Larry Diamond, Professor of Political Science and Sociology, at Stanford University.

It will be interesting to follow these initiatives as they go through the process to get on the ballot. Improving and moderating our election process – be it these or other methods – should have bipartisan support.

Chris Romer is president & CEO of Vail Valley Partnership, the regional chamber of commerce. Learn more at VailValleyPartnership.com