Election-related measures being considered in Colorado
County clerks are sounding an alarm about several proposed ballot initiatives that they say would upend Clorado's elections.
The measures -- which have not yet made the ballot -- would add ranked choice voting for state offices, change the way candidates get on the ballot and require all ballots be counted by 11:59 p.m. on election night.
Right now, Colorado gives overseas and military voters, as well as voters whose signatures are flagged by election judges, eight additional days to get ballots in.
Ranked-choice voting is a system where voters have the option to rank candidates in order of preference: first, second, third, etc.
"If one of the candidates gets above 50%, they're declared the winner. If not, you go to the second round and what that means then, is you drop out the lowest vote-getter and you redistribute their second-place choices to the remaining candidates," Amber McReynolds, a national elections expert, former Denver elections director and advocate for ranked-choice voting, told CBS News Colorado previously.
Ranked-choice voting is used in Basalt, Boulder, Broomfield, Carbondale and Telluride and is set to take effect in Fort Collins in 2025.
RELATED: Discussion ignites surrounding ranked-choice voting option in Denver
Some county clerks object to the measure that would implement an 11:59 p.m. deadline for ballots to be counted.
"A lot of voters are waiting until after 4 p.m. on Election Day to cast ballots. Just this past election, I received over 35,000 ballots after 5 p.m.," said Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes. "I do not want to sacrifice the security, the transparency, the integrity or the fairness of the election process because I now have an unattainable deadline of 11:59 p.m. on election night."
Koppes says the initiatives are a solution in search of a problem and could disenfranchise voters and lead to more distrust in the system.
