Colorado Democrats Brings Their Elections Into The 21st Century

Conventional wisdom has it that whatever radical new idea California embraces, the rest of the nation is sure to follow–eventually. Well, watch out California, because Colorado is in a heated competition with you for Trailblazer status.

On Thursday, the Colorado Senate passed the Voter Access and Modernized Elections Act, which had already cleared the House. The centerpiece of the bill is a ballot-by-mail provision that will send a ballot to every Colorado voter, whether they use it or not. For those who choose to vote in person instead, a certain number of early voting sites will still be open. The change, however, is set to not only save substantial sums of money, but also to improve voter turnout rates. In other vote-by-mail states the turnout rate is at least 5 percentage points above the national average.

The most controversial part of the prospective new law is the provision for same-day voter registration. Republican state senators–none of whom voted for the bill–framed it as an invitation to voter fraud. However, as Senator Mike Johnston, D-Denver, pointed out, validation of registrations already happens instantly because of advances in technology. Presumably, Republicans have heard of such technology, but cling to the current 29-days-before-an-election deadline because they so enjoy being relics of the past. Or possibly they object to the fact that same-day registration increases turnout by 7 to 14 percentage points, potentially increasing Democratic margins.

Although no Republican senator supported the voting rights bill, plenty of their fellow party members participated in writing it. As Sen. Angela Giron, D-Pueblo, said Thursday:

“It’s a technical bill that was written by the county clerks. They’re the ones who know, and they’re the ones who are going to be held accountable every day when people come in to register and vote in county elections. I trust that.”

Those county clerks are both Democrats and Republicans; their action tends to prove that if the partisan politicians would get out of the way, the people’s business could be done. All that remains is for the legislation to go back to the House, to iron out technical points, and then be signed by Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper.

Other groundbreaking laws that have come out of Colorado recently are the sweeping new gun control regulations that Hickenlooper signed into law in March; approval of in-state tuition rates for undocumented students, signed last week; and the decriminalization of marijuana, signed last November.

What sets Colorado’s initiatives apart from California’s is that the GOP in the Golden State is on life-support. Without a heartbeat, it doesn’t provide much opposition. As ABC News recently asserted, California is essentially a one-party state. In Colorado, presumably, the Republican Party still has a fighting chance to avoid extinction, if they’d only stop seeing the future as the enemy and figure out how to work with the kind of change embodied in Colorado’s new legislation. As a report commissioned by the Republican National Committee recently said:

“This trend in early, absentee and online voting is here to stay. Republicans must alter their strategy and acknowledge the trend as future reality, utilizing new tactics to gain victory on Election Day.”

Whether the GOP gets on board or not, states like Colorado and California are forging ahead. And, all kidding and all competition aside, the Democrats in these states are pulling in the same direction. For the GOP, the message is becoming clearer and clearer: get on board with the concept of change–including embracing voters rather than excluding them–or be left at the station!