Proposition 131 – All-Candidate Top-4 Primary and Instant-Runoff (Ranked) Voting General Election

Gov Polis described Prop 131 well to the Mineral County Miner: "This initiative would make it so all candidates running for an office appear on the [June] primary ballot [and all voters would be able to vote for any of those candidates], and then the top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, proceed to the general election. For future November elections, voters would get a ballot listing four candidates. Instead of picking just one, voters would rank the candidates in order of preference. This is also called ‘instant-runoff voting.’”

Unaffiliated and minor-party candidates would be required to run in the primary instead of jumping straight to the November general election. For a seat considered safe for one political party, two or more candidates from the dominant party might advance to the general election, giving the larger electorate a say in which candidate is elected. If only one candidate from the dominant party runs for a seat and that candidate dies or withdraws before the general election, the dominant party does not get to choose a replacement from the party and may end up relinquishing a safe seat to the other party.

Both the primary-election ballot and the general-election ballots will be longer with more candidates than current ballots. There will also be two types of primary ballots –
1) one for the Prop 131 offices (US Senate, US House, and all partisan state offices except for District Attorney) that every voter receives and
2) separate Democratic and Republican ballots for county offices and District Attorney that will continue to be distributed to Democrats and Republicans, respectively, with both ballots going to unaffiliated voters.
The general-election ballot will also be longer because more ballot space is needed to allow voters to rank their preferences whenever there are three or four candidates. Write-in votes will not be allowed on the Prop 131 general-election ballots.

In the November general election, if there are only 2 candidates, then the voters will just vote for one candidate as we do currently. Whenever there are 3 or the maximum 4 candidates, the voters can rank the candidates (#1 for first choice, #2 for second choice and #3 for third choice). The vote counting will be conducted in rounds until 2 candidates remain. In the first round the #1 choices are counted as votes. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and the votes for the eliminated candidate transfer to the next-highest ranked candidate on the ballots. (If there is no next ranking, then the ballot is called “exhausted.”) This process continues until 2 candidates remain, and the candidate with more votes is declared the winner.

The implementation date for Prop 131 is January 2026. However, in the last days of the CO legislative session an amendment was added to Senate Bill 24-210 which delays implementation of any ranked voting method for state and federal offices until 12 municipalities have conducted ranked voting elections. Gov Polis signed SB24-210 but his signing statement said that if the Prop 131 initiative is approved by voters, he wants to work with the legislature and stakeholders to get the initiative implemented “no later than the 2028 election cycle.”

Recommendation: Yes

Prop 131 would empower more voters. In our current partisan primary process, many elections are effectively decided in the primary. By forcing multiple viable candidates to run in the general election, people who haven’t traditionally participated in the primary can have a more meaningful voice in the general election. Extreme candidates are more likely to be eliminated in the instant-runoff voting process.

The long, even-year November ballot could very well lead to voter fatigue with its increased number of competitive elections and with voters able to rank multiple candidates instead of just choosing one. Getting the public’s attention for your favorite candidate or your favorite ballot issue will be harder. Expensive political campaigns could become yet more expensive. If Prop 131 passes, perhaps Boulder should consider revisiting its decision to move municipal elections to even years to give voters a little bit of a breather.

Website for the Yes Side (Colorado Voters First)
https://yeson131.com/

Websites for the No Side (Voter Rights Colorado – left-leaning)
https://voterrightsco.org/
      (First Choice Counts – right-leaning)
https://www.firstchoicecounts.com/ – only addresses the voting method in the general election


Approved Ballot Language
Proposition 131 (STATUTORY)

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?

YES/FOR ___
NO/AGAINST ___

Prop 131 initiative language filed with the Secretary of State
https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/titleBoard/filings/2023-2024/310FinalCorrected.pdf

SB24-210 – Section 54 delays implementation of Prop 131
https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb24-210