2024 Colorado Proposition 131

Proposition 131

November 5, 2024

Establishing All‑Candidate Primary and Ranked Choice Voting General Elections

2024 Colorado Proposition 131 is a proposed ballot measure that will appear before voters in Colorado during the 2024 general election. The citizen initiated proposition would replace Colorado's current partisan primaries with non-partisan blanket primaries and would implement ranked-choice voting for most statewide and state legislative general elections in which the top four candidates in the primary would qualify for the general election ballot.

Background

Currently, Colorado uses partisan primaries to select who appears on general election ballots and a first past the post voting system like most US states. Should Proposition 131 pass, Colorado would switch to a system of blanket primaries and ranked choice general elections. Similar systems were adopted by Maine in 2016 and Alaska in 2020. The proposition was initiated by citizen petition, largely funded by health care executive Kent Thiry. Similar proposals are on the ballot in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Oregon, also funded by Thiry.

In 2024, Governor Jared Polis signed into law Senate Bill 210 which heightened requirements for the adoption of ranked choice voting in Colorado. Specifically, the law requires that at least 12 communities of various required sizes adopt ranked choice voting at a local level before it can be implemented statewide. This has made it unclear how quickly ranked choice voting would be implemented in Colorado should Proposition 131 pass. However, Polis has committed to ensuring ranked choice voting is put into effect by the 2028 election if voters approve the proposition in addition to endorsing the measure.

Contents

The proposition will appear on the ballot as follows:

Shall there be a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes creating new election processes for certain federal and state offices, and, in connection therewith, creating a new all-candidate primary election for U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, CU board of regents, state board of education, and the Colorado state legislature; allowing voters to vote for any one candidate per office, regardless of the voter’s or candidate’s political party affiliation; providing that the four candidates for each office who receive the most votes advance to the general election; and in the general election, allowing voters to rank candidates for each office on their ballot, adopting a process for how the ranked votes are tallied, and determining the winner to be the candidate with the highest number of votes in the final tally?

Campaigns

Support

The campaign in support of Proposition 131 is being led by Colorado Voters First. Additionally, Colorado's official voter guide offers the arguments in support of Proposition 131 that a blanket primary system would create an equal opportunity for everyone to participate in primary elections, increase voter turnout in primaries, and make general elections more competitive. It also offers that ranking candidates in order of preference in general elections gives voters more choices, minimizes the spoiler effect, and results in outcomes that better reflect the will of the voters.

'Yes'

State officials

• Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado

Opposition

There are two main groups leading opposition against Proposition 131: Voters Rights Colorado and First Choice Counts. Colorado's official voter guide also offers the arguments against Proposition 131 that the measure will make elections more expensive, confuse voters, and weaken faith in the outcomes of Colorado elections. Additionally, it offers that political parties should have separate primaries, with unaffiliated voters already being able to participate in Colorado's primary system, and a blanket primary system would result in more expensive primary campaigns.

'No'

Organizations

• Colorado Democratic Party
• Colorado Republican Party

Polling

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of error	For Proposition 131	Against Proposition 131	Undecided
Keating Research	August 28-September 1, 2024	400 (LV)	± 3.5%	56%	21%	23%

Results

Results will begin being made public for Proposition 131 at 7:00 pm on November 5, 2024. Proposition 131 requires a simple majority to pass.

Proposition 131

Choice	Votes	%
Result not yet known
Total votes	—	100.00

See also

• 2016 Maine Question 5
• 2020 Alaska Measure 2
• 2024 Idaho Open Primary initiative