Denver7 reports that Judge Jon J. Olafson rejected an effort by three Republican primary candidates to block unaffiliated voters from participating in Colorado’s upcoming Republican primary. Former State House Rep. Ron Hanks, State Rep. Scott Bottoms, and attorney general candidate David Willson argued that allowing unaffiliated voters into the primary diluted Republican votes and violated the party’s First Amendment rights.
The judge was not buying it. According to Denver7, he found the plaintiffs waited too long to bring the lawsuit, especially with military and overseas ballots already going out, and failed to prove individualized harm or irreparable injury.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Colorado voters approved Proposition 108 in 2016, opening party primaries to unaffiliated voters. You may not like the law. You may grumble about the law. But it is still the law, not a suggestion box with better lighting.
- Three Republican candidates sued to block unaffiliated voters from the June 30 Republican primary, arguing those voters dilute Republican votes and violate party association rights. That is one way to say, “Please make our already-small tent smaller.”
- Judge Olafson ruled the lawsuit came too late, noting ballots had already been mailed to overseas military voters. Nothing says “election integrity” quite like trying to blow up the process after the machinery is already moving.
- The court also said the plaintiffs did not show reliable evidence that unaffiliated voters change primary outcomes. Translation: vibes are not evidence, even when delivered with courtroom confidence.
- Ballots are scheduled to go automatically to active registered voters starting June 8. Meanwhile, the largest voting bloc in Colorado remains unaffiliated, which some Republicans continue to treat like a mysterious foreign tribe instead of neighbors who shovel the same snow and pay the same property taxes.
My Bottom Line
Once again, we had to have a judge save us from ourselves. The Colorado GOP has once again dodged the irrelevancy bullet it keeps trying to fire directly into its own foot.
I have said this before, and I will say it again. I disagreed with the initiative that got us here 10 years ago. I did not think opening primaries this way was the right move. But Colorado voters passed it. It became Colorado law. And adults, especially conservative adults who claim to care about law and order, are supposed to follow the law until they change it the right way.
Calling unaffiliated voters “injurious” is political malpractice dressed up like principle. These are the voters who decide statewide elections in Colorado. They are not a nuisance. They are not trespassers. They are the largest voting bloc in the state, and appealing to them is not betrayal. It is called winning.
If Republicans want better policy, we need more voters, not fewer. We need to persuade the unaffiliated dad in Windsor, the mom in Greeley, the small business owner in Longmont, and the retired couple in Pueblo. Slamming the door in their faces and then wondering why Colorado keeps drifting left is not strategy. It is self-sabotage with a precinct captain badge.
Source: Denver 7
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