Following Colorado’s confusing and poorly handled 2016 caucuses, a number of voices have called for reinstating a presidential primary election. That makes perfect sense. What does not is the associated idea of opening the primary to unaffiliated voters.
Colorado eliminated its presidential primary in 2003 as a cost-saving measure. It was said that doing away it saved more than $2 million. But with that many feel that Colorado has taken itself out of the nominating process. Especially as it played out this year, the caucus system is often seen as undemocratic and not conducive to engaging voters, particularly after Republican officials chose not to include a presidential preference poll in the precinct caucus. And in some places Democratic caucuses were too crowded for all attendees to be heard.
Colorado has a primary for other federal and state offices, but it is held at a time – June 28 this year – when presidential nominations are usually already decided. A presidential primary would have to be earlier.
There is an effort in the Legislature (House Bill 1454) to reinstate a presidential primary and there may be others on the fall ballot. It would also allow unaffiliated voters to temporarily affiliate with a party with election judges at the time of the election. The affiliation would expire 30 days after the primary.
One ballot proposal would mail ballots listing all presidential candidates to all registered voters. A voter this year would see the names on Clinton, Sanders, Trump and Cruz. The idea, of course, is that 37 percent of Colorado voters are unaffiliated and that, as its supporters have said, “it is not right to exclude more than 1 million Coloradans from our primary elections.”
Except nobody has been excluded. Unaffiliated voters chose not to get involved with a party. That is what “unaffiliated” means.
We have a two-party system, not a free-for-all. Partisanship is often decried, but parties serve a function. And primaries are to allow Republicans and Democrats a voice in choosing their parties’ nominees – not to give others a say in an organization they have elected not to join.
