Super Tuesday on March 1 wasn’t so super in Colorado for Republicans and unaffiliated voters. The Colorado GOP canceled its presidential preference poll in response to rule changes at the national committee level. Colorado’s closed caucus system meant that voters had to be registered as members of one of the two major parties by early January. Two organizations are hoping to introduce ballot initiatives to bring a primary election to Colorado’s delegate selection process.ìUntil 2002, we had a primary in Colorado,î said Ryan Lynch, executive director of the Colorado Republican Party. Former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, pushed for the removal of the presidential primary, replacing it with a straw poll at party caucuses, Lynch said. This shifted the cost of running the delegate selection system to the parties. It also allowed the parties to set their own rules for admission to the caucuses.Both the Republican and Democrat parties in Colorado required caucus-goers to be registered with their party by Jan. 4 to participate in the March 1 caucuses. Voters registered with third-parties or ìunaffiliatedî with a party were not allowed to speak or vote in the caucuses. Thirty-five percent of Colorado voters are not affiliated with a political party, according to the Colorado Secretary of State office.The state Republicans saw the ability to send non-committed delegates to the July national convention in Cleveland as an overall benefit for Colorado this election cycle. If no candidate has a majority of delegates after primary season is complete, then the non-committed Colorado delegates will have a large amount of power to influence the convention. ìIf we have a brokered convention, those delegates will be a hot commodity ñ- the prom king and queen and everyone will be going after them,î Lynch said. ìThere is a possibility our delegates will be very influential. Our delegates could decide who wins the nomination.îLet Colorado Vote, an organization sponsored by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, submitted two proposed ballot initiatives to the Secretary of State Initiative and Title Board in March. One would allow unaffiliated voters to participate in primary elections, and the other would provide for a presidential primary election separate from the caucus system. The board approved a measure to allow unaffiliated voters to participate in primary elections for the November ballot, but two of the three board members voted against the presidential primary election initiative because it wasn’t limited to a single subject.The primary election initiative authors submitted a motion for a new hearing on the single subject issue, but were denied. The petitioners appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court March 21. Opening briefs will be filed in early April for the appeal.Let Colorado Vote and other supporters of a Colorado presidential primary have also gained two major allies in ensuring a primary election is in place by the next presidential election in 2020. On the day after Super Tuesday’s controversial caucuses, Colorado Republican chairman Steve House told the Associated Press that the GOP and the Democrats have agreed to push for a presidential primary election by 2020.
