Unnecessarily complicated.
Far too expensive.
Increasing the corrupting influence of money in politics.

Vote NO on Proposition 131!

Election Night Statement

Tuesday, November 5 | 9:55 PM

This is a win for Colorado voters, and a win for democracy against an historic spending spree by wealthy individuals and special interests on a Colorado ballot measure. Let this be a lesson to big money that grassroots power is still alive and well in Colorado when voters do their homework and cast a ballot.

Colorado voters understood Prop 131 was a confusing, expensive and disruptive proposal that tilted the political landscape even more toward anonymous money in politics. In spite of a more than 30 to 1 spending advantage, they couldn’t drag this bad policy across the finish line.

Voter Rights Colorado is a broad swath of people and organizations who have worked on voter rights and education - some of them for decades - to produce election laws that are the envy of the country. We will continue the process of improving our elections with the help of election officials and Colorado voters. We appreciate every single person and organization who did the hard work to help defeat Prop. 131 to keep Colorado’s elections voter-friendly, safe, secure and accurate.     

– Voter Rights Colorado Coalition           

A simple paper ballot line icon outlined in purple and yellow. It looks like a paper with the top right corner bent. On the left are 3 empty checkboxes - each with two lines to the right. In the bottom right corner of the paper is a pencil.

Millionaires and billionaires like Kent Thiry who has a history of medicaid fraud and trying to buy elections in Colorado, are pushing measures all over the country to run a confusing and misguided version of Ranked Choice Voting.

These wealthy backers always promise it will improve our politics. But a 2023 University of Minnesota study of states with RCV elections found it does not decrease negative campaigning, polarization in elections nor increase diversity of elected officials. And, in fact it has shown to decrease turnout, increase voter errors and voter confusion.

There are better ways to make Colorado’s elections fair - vote no on proposition 131. 

A blurred image of an old Colorado ballot. The image is overlayed with yellow highlights and purple shadows.
A close up image of a black person with long curly hair wearing a yellow sweater. We see their left shoulder in focus and a blurry background of red and white stripes. On their sweater is a circular "I voted sticker."
A hand styled in black & white halftone is dumping coins/money into a ballot box with the Colorado flag on it.

While this measure helps the wealthy get their way, taxpayers are the ones who will foot the bill for an expensive new voting system.

Non-partisan analysis estimates Colorado taxpayers will spend $21 million in the first 2-3 years alone to implement this.

Meanwhile, election experts are raising red flags. County clerks, who run our elections statewide, were never consulted about the proposed changes. They are warning Colorado may not be able to correctly implement this complicated new system statewide in the short time required by the measure.

Ranked choice voting (RCV) has been implemented in several other states, what are the facts saying?

Studies show RCV can be so complicated that in many places across the country voter participation drops, more mistakes are made that invalidate votes without the voters’ knowledge, and results are misreported and delayed by up to two weeks.

Learn more about the details of this confusing and misguided version of ranked choice voting and proposition 131.