Kent Thiry, Key Backer of Prop 131 & Ranked Choice Voting

Since retiring from being the CEO of a Fortune 500 company (DaVita), Kent Thiry has spent a lot of time, energy, and money trying to remake Colorado's political system in ways he believes tends to restrain the furthest fringes of the left and right. He was largely responsible for opening our primary elections to unaffiliated voters, for example. His current effort is Proposition 131 which would radically change the way we elect people to federal office (except for president) and to most offices in state government (but not DAs and not city/county governments unless they do their own local reforms.)

In particular, Prop 131 would replace party primaries with one big primary containing all candidates. The top 4 finishers (who could all be from one party or any blend from 0-4 to 4-0, or something else if a non-Democrat or non-Republican is a top finisher) make the general election. And then the general election is decided by Ranked Choice Voting. A voter would not be required to rank, however; he or she could just "bullet vote" for one of the four candidates and express no preference among the others. If no candidate has over 50% in the first count of all general election ballots, the candidate with the lowest count is eliminated and the voters who picked that candidate first have their ballots re-checked for their second choices who now get those votes. That process proceeds until a candidate has over 50% of the vote. 

I'm leaning toward supporting this in part because both political parties hate it and because our parties are doing great harm to this country. When our results have been so bad for so long, I'm likely willing to try almost anything that sounds modestly reasonable to see if the results are better. There are arguments against this system, particularly its complexity, and some conservatives think it's a recipe for Democrats to win more, but I think that's because conservatives are really bad at playing any new game.

One thing worth noting: A sleazy move by Dems in the state legislature included provisions in a new law that could potentially make it difficult or impossible to implement Prop 131 even if it passes. If it does pass there will surely be massive legal challenges to Emily Sirota's shenanigans. Jared Polis should have vetoed the bill that included the stuff but he didn't even though he opposed these particular provisions.

Colorado’s all-candidate primary and ranked choice general election ballot measure is poised to pass, poll shows - The Colorado Sun

Majority of Colorado voters support initiative proposing election reform, poll finds | Elections | coloradopolitics.com

Text of the initiative: 2023-2024_310vbb.pdf (colorado.gov)

If voters adopt statewide ranked choice voting, Colorado may prevent it from taking effect - The Colorado Sun


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