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We have a lot of citizen involvement. You see it in these kind of local activities and overrides, but it goes to the state level ballot initiatives as well. S

We have a lot of citizen involvement. You see it in these kind of local activities and overrides, but it goes to the state level ballot initiatives as well. Sadly, there are some inroads against it. In a rare show of bipartisanship, both the Republican and Democratic parties supported this 'Raise the Bar' initiative to make it more difficult to add initiatives to the state ballot. It doesn't remove the right, but it requires a lot more organization by requiring 2% voter signatures from each state district within a 60 day collection window. It sucks, but I'm not too distraught. A little more authority was ceded to the political parties but I still have faith that the citizenry are active and involved. We don't all believe the same thing (it's a swing state), but at least we act. What I absolutely love is the freedom to be independent. As an independent voter, I can vote in the primary for any of the political parties, as long as I only vote once. I don't need to pre-register for that party to be eligible. There are a lot of other improvements to the electoral process we could potentially make, but I'm glad we at least pulled down this low hanging fruit as a first step.

ouid 9y ago
2% from each district sounds like an absurdly high barrier. Can you imagine how hard it would be to hire enough people just to say hello to 2% of Colorado in 60 days? I think you're underestimating the magnitude of this.
- sharkmerry 9y ago
  It does seem like a lot but I havent done canvassing before 5.5 mil people about 110k signatures. Colorado only has 7 districts, 2 (eastside and westside of the state) comprise of almost 40% of the landmass each. 1 district to the north of denver and one to the south. 3 that make up the denver metropolis. It would be alot but its the 2 outside districts that probably would be the toughest to get
  - heroprotagonist 9y ago
    Perhaps I should have clarified that to 'state senate districts', of which there are 35. https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/maps/sldu/st08_co.html https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/maps/sldu/st08_co.html
- ficklepickle 9y ago
  We need 10% in BC. But that's for a referendum, I think. Only happened once in my lifetime, when the old people got worked up over a harmonized sales tax.
Steko 9y ago
> make it more difficult to add initiatives to the state ballot ... It sucks Despite a noble history and many success stories, ballot initiatives seem just as corruptible as the parties and perhaps more dangerous with the amount of fake news and propaganda that social networks have enabled.
blackguardx 9y ago
>What I absolutely love is the freedom to be independent. As an independent voter, I can vote in the primary for any of the political parties, as long as I only vote once. I don't need to pre-register for that party to be eligible. This was added last year and there hasn't been a presidential primary where this has happened yet. The republican party might even skip the caucus/primary again and appoint their own candidate.

ouid 9y ago

2% from each district sounds like an absurdly high barrier. Can you imagine how hard it would be to hire enough people just to say hello to 2% of Colorado in 60 days? I think you're underestimating the magnitude of this.

sharkmerry 9y ago
It does seem like a lot but I havent done canvassing before 5.5 mil people about 110k signatures. Colorado only has 7 districts, 2 (eastside and westside of the state) comprise of almost 40% of the landmass each. 1 district to the north of denver and one to the south. 3 that make up the denver metropolis. It would be alot but its the 2 outside districts that probably would be the toughest to get
- heroprotagonist 9y ago
  Perhaps I should have clarified that to 'state senate districts', of which there are 35. https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/maps/sldu/st08_co.html https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/maps/sldu/st08_co.html
ficklepickle 9y ago
We need 10% in BC. But that's for a referendum, I think. Only happened once in my lifetime, when the old people got worked up over a harmonized sales tax.

Steko 9y ago

> make it more difficult to add initiatives to the state ballot ... It sucks Despite a noble history and many success stories, ballot initiatives seem just as corruptible as the parties and perhaps more dangerous with the amount of fake news and propaganda that social networks have enabled.

blackguardx 9y ago

>What I absolutely love is the freedom to be independent. As an independent voter, I can vote in the primary for any of the political parties, as long as I only vote once. I don't need to pre-register for that party to be eligible. This was added last year and there hasn't been a presidential primary where this has happened yet. The republican party might even skip the caucus/primary again and appoint their own candidate.