Unaffiliated voters: Don’t spoil it!

Your vote counts in the June 26 primary election (if you do it right)
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    For the first time ever, unaffiliated voters in Colorado will be able to participate in the primary election without affiliating with either the Republican or Democratic party.
    This is the result of Proposition 108, which was approved by Coloradans in 2016.
    But there’s a catch. They can only vote in one party’s primary, not both.
    Phillips County Clerk and Recorder Beth Zilla said ballots for the June 26 primary will be mailed the week of June 4. The 879 unaffiliated voters in Phillips County will receive a packet containing the ballots of all participating major parties.
    Unaffiliated voters may choose which party’s ballot they want to get in the mail by selecting a party preference at govotecolorado.com or by appearing in person at the Phillips County clerk’s office.
    Unaffiliated voters who select a ballot preference will remain unaffiliated. Ballot preference is only good for one primary election; voters will need to select a preference each time.
    Those who don’t take action will still receive the packet with all the ballots for major parties. But take caution — only one marked ballot can be counted! If an unaffiliated voter returns multiple marked ballots, all ballots will be rejected and none of the votes will be counted.
    For example, voters cannot mark the governor race on the Democratic ballot and the treasurer race on the Republican ballot. Only one ballot can be marked even though voters may receive more than one ballot in the mail.
    That’s a first, said Secretary of State Wayne Williams in a press release. “We have never, to my knowledge, at any point sent you a ballot and said, ‘Don’t vote it.’ Never.”
    According to the release, unaffiliated voters are the largest voting block in Colorado. Of the state’s 3.2 million active voters, 36 percent are unaffiliated, 31 percent are Democratic and 30.7 percent are Republican.
    In Phillips County, unaffiliated voters sit in the middle, according to Zilla. There are 1,783 Republicans, 879 unaffiliated voters and 524 Democrats.  
    Proposition 108 has no impact on registered Republicans and Democrats, who will receive a primary ballot with their candidates’ names like always.
    However, Proposition 108 will have a big impact on costs associated with the primary election. For example, Phillips County will be mailing 879 ballots that it has never had to mail in a primary election before. And some of those envelopes will contain more than one ballot, increasing the cost even more.
    Phillips County will also be hiring extra election judges, said Zilla, because the process will be much more time intensive than in prior years. If an unaffiliated voter sends in more than one ballot, a judge will have to make sure that only one ballot has been marked.
    Tuesday, May 29, is the last day for unaffiliated voters to select a preference and the last day for voters who are affiliated with a political party to change or withdraw political party affiliation if they wish to vote in a different party’s primary election.
    Unaffiliated voters have been given a unique chance for their voice to be heard. Don’t spoil it!

 

Candidates on the primary ballots in Phillips County

REPUBLICAN PARTY
    Representative to the 116th United States Congress, District 4 — Ken Buck.
    Governor — Walker Stapleton, Greg Lopez, Doug Robinson, Victor Mitchell.
    Secretary of State — Wayne Williams.
    State Treasurer — Justin Everett, Polly Lawrence, Brian Watson.
    Attorney General — George Brauchler.
    State Board of Education Member, Congressional District 4 — Debora L. Scheffel.
    Regent of the University of Colorado, At Large — Ken Montera.
    State Senator, District 1 — Jerry Sonnenberg.
    State Representative, District 65 — Rod Pelton.
    County Commissioner, District 1 — Terry L. Hofmeister, K. Joe Kinnie.
    County Clerk and Recorder — Madene “Beth” Zilla.
    County Treasurer — Sharon L. Michael, Linda L. Statz.
    County Assessor — Douglas D. Kamery.
    County Sheriff — Thomas C. Elliott, William “JR” Myers.
    
DEMOCRATIC PARTY
    Representative to the 116th United States Congress, District 4 — Chase Kohne, Karen McCormick.
    Governor — Cary Kennedy, Jared Polis, Donna Lynne, Mike Johnston.
    Secretary of State — Jena Griswold.
    State Treasurer — Dave Young, Bernard Douthit.
    Attorney General — Phil Weiser, Joe Salazar.
    State Board of Education Member, Congressional District 4 — Tim Krug.
    Regent of the University of Colorado, At Large — Lesley Smith.
    State Senator, District 1 — Debra Gustafson.
    State Representative, District 65 — Bethleen McCall.
    
   
   

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