Colorado Workshops, Election Films, and Voting Methods Advocacy Compiled by Celeste Landry for the Voting Methods Team
Courageous Colorado’s Activation Tour comes to Boulder County on Oct 20 At the LWVCO Making Democracy Work! Day event on Sept 20th, attendees heard from Courageous Colorado. “This cross-partisan effort was designed to uncover how Coloradans define courage & representation in our politics and what reforms they believe will create a more responsive and representative democracy.”
Courageous Colorado visited communities across the state earlier this year and is touring the state again in October and November. “[W]e can work together to shape change in communities we care about.” Register for one of the Monday, October 20th Boulder County stops at https://www.courageouscolorado.org/activation-tour
● City of Boulder, 10-11:30am, Boulder Public Main Library
● Longmont, Louisville & Lafayette, 2-3:30pm, location TBD
Vision 2076: Imagine Colorado on Our 200th Anniversary
The Colorado Fiscal Institute and Reimagine Colorado are hosting Vision 2076 sessions around the state. “Think less ‘policy talk,’ more ‘craft table.’ These sessions are full of hands-on activities, art supplies, good food, and lively conversation that spark big ideas for the future. No expertise required—just bring your curiosity, your ideas, and maybe a friend or two. Everyone is welcome, no matter your background, beliefs, or perspective. … Interpretation and childcare are available.” Past and future sessions:
● Fort Collins, Sept 23, 5:30-7:30pm
● Aurora, Sept 29, 5:30-7:30pm
● Colorado Springs, Oct 2, 5:30-7:30pm
● Pueblo, Oct 3, 5:30-7:30pm
● Leadville, Nov 11, 6-8pm
● Denver, West Slope, Southern Colorado, Eastern Colorado – each TBD For more details and to RSVP, go to https://coloradofiscal.org/vision-2076/
Films about the 2024 Election
The Choice Movie: Ranked Choice Voting in Portland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJEKUNFfIBE
24:46
Follows a candidate in District 1 and a candidate in District 4 as they run in the first council election under Portland, Oregon’s new charter. Voters used a proportional multi-winner ranked voting method to elect 12 council members (3 members per district). Note that RCV refers to several voting methods, including both Portland’s proportional Single Transferable Vote form and Boulder’s single-winner Instant-Runoff Voting used for the 2023 mayoral contest. See the RCV table in “What Is RCV Anyway?”
Collection of 14 Portland, OR films (in case The Choice Movie just whetted your interest) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2bdJbEmVL2RMoZzjxUjZa0QseMCCbt6P Ranging from 8 minutes to 1 ½ hours long
5 Lift Every Voice (LEV) films
9 Portland Electoral Symposium (PES) films
The Officials
https://time.com/7017573/the-officials/
26:59
“US election officials in rural and urban jurisdictions of four battleground states hold the line against organized efforts to undermine their work as they prepare for the contentious 2024 contest.”
LWV’s Action and Advocacy
LWV of Colorado sent a letter in September to Secretary of State Jena Griswold and 3 officials in her department with the following request:
“We are asking that the Colorado Elections Division move forward with the actions below for proportional ranked voting (PRV) and approval voting:
● Certify the PRV portion of the ranked voting tabulation software that Colorado licenses. Also certify software to accept and tabulate approval voting ballots.
● Set rules for conducting risk-limiting audits (RLAs) of an approval voting election and set in motion the changes needed to do an appropriate audit of a PRV contest. ● Promulgate rules and procedures for conducting PRV and approval voting elections. Rule 26 is inadequate for PRV (aka single transferable vote) and doesn’t mention approval voting. The procedures for county clerks to conduct PRV and approval voting elections are non-existent.”
“How gerrymandering lets politicians pick their voters before the first ballot is cast” (Durango Herald) by Wendy Pollar, Siggy Palmer and Jan Phillips, LWV of La Plata County Voter Services https://www.durangoherald.com/articles/how-gerrymandering-lets-politicians-pick-their-voters -before-the-first-ballot-is-cast/
● Last month the LWVBC Voting Methods Team announced a new webpage on proportional representation, where you’ll see that proportional representation “eliminates or substantially mitigates the impacts of gerrymandering.”
An LWVBC petition to the Boulder City Council asked for a 2025 study session on proportional representation. The Longmont City Council voted to hold a future study session on Ranked Choice Voting (single-winner Instant-Runoff Voting and multi-winner Proportional Ranked Voting). If you run into any council members or council candidates in the two cities, please consider expressing your support for the councils to study proportional representation. If you’d like to be more involved in these advocacy efforts, please contact the Voting Methods Team at vmteam@lwvbc.org.