Colorado Republican Party sues Secretary of State to block nearly 2 million Coloradans from voting in primary elections
The Colorado Republican Party is suing the Colorado Secretary of State in an effort to keep unaffiliated voters from voting in the primaries. If it succeeds, and state law is overturned, 1.7 million Coloradans wouldn't have a say in either Democratic or Republican primary elections.
The lawsuit would repeal Proposition 108, which Coloradans overwhelmingly supported in 2016. The ballot measure gave unaffiliated voters the right to vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary.
The Republican party says that violates its right or freedom to associate under the First Amendment.
Former Colorado Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams has been sounding an alarm for weeks about what he calls "an act of political suicide" by the party.
"Why would a political party want to say to 47% of the electorate, 'we don't want you?'" he asked.
Current Republican Party Chair Dave Williams says if unaffiliated voters want a say in the Republican primary, join the party.
"It makes no sense to have the Raiders' coaches picking the Broncos' quarterback. In the same fashion, we want Republicans picking the Republican nominees," Williams said.
He isn't stopping at a lawsuit. He's also trying to amend party bylaws to make it easier for the GOP to opt out of the open primary altogether.
State law requires 75% of the party's Central Committee to vote in favor of opting out but Williams says less than 75% of members even show-up for the vote. He says those absentee voters count against the 75% so they are essentially "No" votes. Under the amendment, those who don't show up and vote would be counted as "Yes" votes.
"The vote is already assumed in the negative. The question Republicans have to ask themselves is, do we want to allow the government to impose the 'No' vote on us or do we want to flip the script and allow Republicans to consider it a 'Yes'?" he asked.
Wadhams says the amendment essentially steals the votes of members who don't show-up.
"It is ironic that people who are proponents of taking away the vote of members are the same people who have been ranting and raving for three years now that Donald Trump lost because the election was stolen from him," he said.
Williams blames the open primary process for GOP losses the last few elections, saying it's allowed Democrats to interfere in Republicans nominating process. Wadhams says former president Donald Trump is the reason Republicans have lost and if the party dies, he says, conservatives aren't the only ones who lose.
The State of Colorado does too he says.
"Watching the Republican Party... literally, go into oblivion is going to empower the far left of the Democratic Party and they're going to start winning more elections and they're going to start influencing more public policy in Colorado," he said.
Williams says the far left is already winning with an open primary. He says it's time to try something different.
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. We've tried the open primary for three cycles now and Republicans have lost more ground with each successive election," Williams said.
The Republican Central Committee - which includes more than 400 members - will vote on whether to change its bylaws and count an absentee voter a "Yes" vote this weekend. Then next month, they will vote on a proposal to opt-out of the state primary and hold their own.
As of July 1, nearly half of Colorado's active registered voters were unaffiliated, 27% were registered as Democrats, and 24% were registered as Republicans.
