John,
The Colorado Republican Party is looking to benefit far-right electoral candidates by changing the voted-upon rules for primaries. In 2016, the Colorado populace approved measures that made primaries for both parties open, meaning that anyone can vote in a primary of their choosing, irrelevant to their party status. However, the growing far-right wing of the Colorado GOP is now looking to overturn this by holding an internal vote on September 18th. If they succeed, Republican primaries in the state will be closed, restricting voter access.
The biggest effect that this change would have would be that of unaffiliated voters. Currently, independents and moderates that are not registered to the Republican party can vote in Republican primaries for moderate candidates. By switching to closed primaries, the 1.65 million unaffiliated voters in Colorado—43% of the voting population—would have to register with the Republican party to vote in the Republican primary. This heavily favors more conservative candidates, as staunch right-wingers are much more likely to be registered for the party than moderates.
This is yet another effort to suppress the will of the people to favor the far-right, as we have seen all over the country. If the far-right succeeds in passing this vote, the layout of the state could change drastically for the worse. We need to do all we can to minimize the effect the far-right has on Colorado politics, and that means making people aware that their voting rights are being infringed upon.
