If you can't win, cheat
A GOP minority seeks to disenfranchise mainstream Republicans and right leaning Unaffiliated voters by any means necessary
If you can’t win, cheat. It’s not just a Trump postelection strategy anymore. Colorado Republican State Chairman Dave Williams and allies on the party’s state central committee have embraced it wholeheartedly. They’re plotting to take away your ability to participate in the GOP primary. Since such schemes have failed in committee in the past, they intend to rig the vote.
Under Proposition 108, which passed in 2016, either party can cancel its primary if three quarters of its state central committee vote to do so. The law also allows unaffiliated voters to participate in the Republican or Democrat Party primary election. A minority of GOP central committee members who oppose the inclusion of unaffiliated voters have tried three times unsuccessfully to convince the majority to make the caucus process the only means of choosing candidates.
At the next committee meeting on August 5th, primary-foes will seek a rule change to declare all missed votes yes votes to end the primary. The committee, made up of hundreds of elected officials and county party leaders, generally sees around half show up at any given meeting. It’s summertime so it’s likely vacation, camping, or home improvement projects will take precedence over a meeting. If the rule change succeeds, anyone not there will be counted as having voted in the affirmative whether or not that person agrees with the proposal.
The elimination of the primary will not only exclude unaffiliated voters it will disenfranchise the majority of Republican voters who want to select candidates through a ballot rather than through delegates chosen at caucus.
Very few people go to caucuses. When I was a precinct leader, I printed up hundreds of notices of an upcoming meeting. Over several days I walked neighborhoods and placed them on GOP members’ doors. On caucus day, three people showed up. I brought two of them with me.
People are busy and the meetings are tedious. Assemblies are worse—more stale speeches, petty intrigue, and reams of red, white, and blue bunting—dreadful really. I imagine Democrat meetings are similar only with drum circles and COVID masks.
The Colorado legislature created the caucus system in 1910 hoping to make candidate selection more democratic. Perhaps it did meet this goal back then but today the process is anything but democratic. Around 1% of the state’s 931,000 registered Republicans participate in the process and they send some 3,000 delegates to the Colorado Republican State Assembly.
While the caucus system engages only a small percentage of voters of either party, it draws a large percentage of individuals with Let’s Go Brandon or RFK bumper stickers on their cars, the passionate intensity types the poet Yeats warned us about.
As the results of the last election show, the preferences of these delegates do not represent those of mainstream GOP and right-leaning unaffiliated voters. Top vote getters at the last assembly lost to candidates with broader appeal in the primary where far more people participate. If the majority of right-leaning Colorado voters are excluded from the process, the November 2024 slate is likely to include the same bowl of mixed nuts voters rejected in the 2022 primary
These election conspiracy theorists will fare worse against Democrats in the general election than mainstream Republicans and will further marginalize the GOP in this state. Elevated from discredited has-beens to official candidates, their witless statements and daffy social media posts will bring national embarrassment to the Republican Party while providing fundraising material for Democrats. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would suspect Williams of being a shill for the left.
Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer