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Libertarian Party of Colorado: CO Lawmakers Considering Legislation Potentially Harmful to Third Parties

By Caryn Ann Harlos on May 2, 2016 4:26 PM

lpcowebheaderThe Colorado House of Representatives has once agian laid over HB16-1454, concerning primary elections, restoring a presidential primary election in Colorado and allowing unaffiliated voters to temporarily affiliate with a political party in order to vote in primary elections. The Libertarian Party of Colorado is opposed to the potential legislation for the following reasons:

  1. The piece of legislation is being rushed through the final days of the General Assembly without taking time and consideration what the potential ramifications could be for all political parties major and minor.
  2. It creates a new classification of voter, the temporarily affiliated. This dilutes and devalues the party process of selecting candidates at all levels. It diminishes the voice of the actual party members.
  3. It opens up a petition process that is unclear how it will affect minor parties in both the presidential primary and state primary. For presidential primary candidates it would place an unreasonable amount of petition signatures on minor parties to get their candidate on the ballot. It would also potentially open the process for someone to affiliate with a party only to petition on the ballot, bypassing the process that the parties have put in place to vet the candidates and make sure the candidates are aligned with the party platform and philosophy.
  4. It is fiscally irresponsible to spend millions of taxpayer dollars that would seek to benefit the two major parties, while diminishing and eliminating the choice of voters in minor parties.

    5. The proposed legislation can be viewed at:

    http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2016a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/55F77CC60336961A87257F800061C5EB?open&file=1454_eng.pdf

    We need to get this legislation stopped, we are asking all members of the Libertarian party to contact as many members of the Colorado House of Representatives and demand they vote NO on this legislation when it does come up for a vote on the House floor. Here is the link to their contact information:

    http://lpcolorado.org/contact-your-lawmakers-regarding-hb16-1454/

    If you have any other questions or concerns about this legislation you can contact me at

    [email protected].

    Michael Stapleton

    Legislative Director

    LP Colorado

Caryn Ann Harlos

Caryn Ann Harlos is a paralegal residing in Castle Rock, Colorado and presently serving as the Region 1 Representative on the Libertarian National Committee and is a candidate for LNC Secretary at the 2018 Libertarian Party Convention. Articles posted should NOT be considered the opinions of the LNC nor always those of Caryn Ann Harlos personally. Caryn Ann's goal is to provide information on items of interest and (sometimes) controversy about the Libertarian Party and minor parties in general not to necessarily endorse the contents.

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