By Chris Goodwin

I’m a strong supporter of ranked-choice voting. RCV has the potential to be an important, even game-changing reform, that would help level the electoral playing field by eliminating the spoiler effect and the need for lesser of two evils voting. It would open up our elections to new political parties, new people and new ideas, giving voters a broader range of opinions and choices that just about everyone wants.

Proposition 131 is not ranked-choice voting! It is a watered-down, distorted version of it, and in some ways, the opposite of RCV, and it needs to be defeated! First, RCV would not apply to the “one big primary” for all candidates regardless of political party, that Prop 131 creates. This means that, depending on what office the primary is for, there could be two, three or more Democrats, two, three or more Republicans, maybe an independent and a handful of smaller third parties in the primary.

And, just like our current general elections, without RCV, the spoiler effect and lesser-of-two-evils voting will rule. Vote for a third party or an independent, and most likely, one of these two things will happen; you waste your vote on a candidate that will get a miniscule number of votes, or worse, they will get enough votes to have a spoiler effect and someone you really, really don’t want, will win the election!

The fact that under Prop 131, the top four in the primary go on to the general election, will change very little or nothing at all. The odds are that the final four will be two Democrats and two Republicans, or three of one and one of the other or even all four from the same party! This would effectively exclude third parties and independents (unless they finish in the top four) who already have ballot status and would normally be on the November general election ballot. Also, under this top four primary, unaffiliated voters could lose their option to vote for independents or an alternative party in the general election.

This is the opposite of ranked-choice voting and not “the freedom to vote for any candidate in every election” that the proponents of Proposition 131 claim it will be in their TV ads.

Not only would independents and alternative parties most likely be relegated to the “one big primary for all,” probably in the spring when fewer people are paying attention and the voter turnout is much, much lower than in the general election, but Democrats and Republicans too, would lose their right to have a primary of their own where they choose their candidates.

Under a true ranked-choice voting system, all parties and independents that have earned ballot status would be on the general election ballot in November, giving all voters of all viewpoints the range of choices at election time that everyone wants, without worries about wasting their vote or the spoiler effect.

We need ranked-choice voting for Colorado, but let’s do it right. Proposition 131 is the wrong way to do it! Have you gotten your ballot in the mail yet? Vote “no” on Prop 131!

Chris Goodwin is a freelance documentary photographer, a retired CU-Boulder staff member, a former local union president and a former union organizer. He has lived in Colorado for over 50 years.