Election 2018 post-mortem (law, radio, rated)

[xeric]

Originally Posted by davebarnes

No!
The GOP: Party of Hate® needs to die.
The Dumpster® owns the GOPers and a vote for any GOPer is a vote in support of an odious sociopath.

Ten years ago, I would have agreed with you. But, no more.

I'm unaffiliated (but usually vote Democrat) and this pretty much sums up my view. A Republican candidate would need to repudiate Trump and be on the moderate side for me to consider voting for him or her.

[xeric]

Originally Posted by Westerner92

There are some pretty easy ways to weaken the two-party dichotomy. Part of me is wondering if I can start the campaign for preferential voting myself. It sounds like most on this board, conservative and liberal alike, would sign the petition.

I assume you are talking about the instant run-off voting system implemented in Maine recently. I agree that this would be a great reform and I would love to see it implemented in Colorado. I would also like to see some sort of proportional representation system implemented for the House, but to make that work, we'd need to increase the size of that body (you can't have meaningful proportional representation without at least 3 representatives per state). I think the main advantage of the latter is it would reduce the risk of one party winning everything by a thin majority and then governing from an extreme political position. It would be nice if there were some mechanism in our political system that allows centrists to come to power in cases where the electorate is very closely divided (and I say this as liberal).

[Indigo Cardinal]

Originally Posted by xeric

I assume you are talking about the instant run-off voting system implemented in Maine recently. I agree that this would be a great reform and I would love to see it implemented in Colorado. I would also like to see some sort of proportional representation system implemented for the House, but to make that work, we'd need to increase the size of that body (you can't have meaningful proportional representation without at least 3 representatives per state). I think the main advantage of the latter is it would reduce the risk of one party winning everything by a thin majority and then governing from an extreme political position. It would be nice if there were some mechanism in our political system that allows centrists to come to power in cases where the electorate is very closely divided (and I say this as liberal).

I was reading about how Maine does this, and I was thinking that I like the idea as well. And I'm also a liberal.

[otowi]

I'm not sure if this is the method you're talking about, but one voting method I think does a better job of getting to the desires/wishes of the public is rank voting. Rather than voting for one candidate, you rank your preferences. First, every vote counts for its first choice. If a candidate has more than half of the vote based on first-choices, that candidate wins. If no candidate has more than half of those votes, then the candidate with the fewest first choices is eliminated. The voters who selected the defeated candidate as a first choice will then have their votes added to the totals of their next choice. This process continues until a candidate has more than half of the active votes or only two candidates remain. The candidate with a majority among the active candidates is declared the winner. There are a few places around the country using this method for local offices, including our own town of Basalt for its mayor. https://www.fairvote.org/rcv#how_rcv_works

[randomparent]

Originally Posted by Brill

Personally, I see unaffiliated as people that are not loyal to either party. While their votes may have gone democratic this time, will that always be the case?

I've always joked that unaffiliated voters are really closet partisans with commitment issues. I still believe that. Despite protests to the contrary, I think very few voters truly approach campaign season with an open mind. And I'll further submit that opening the primary has been a very good thing for political data mining efforts. Those who study these things now have a much better idea who the left and right are in Colorado, even though a huge percentage of us have not officially declared a party affiliation.

[SkyDog77]

Great follow up here:

Colorado Republicans, reeling from 2018 losses, wonder: Is it us or is it Trump?

So far, Republicans are split on the answer. In two dozen interviews with Republican officials and strategists, The Colorado Sun found wide differences of opinion about what led to the party’s losses and what to do next.

“My opinion is that it’s a temporary symptom and we will bounce back,” said Senate President Kevin Grantham, a Cañon City Republican, in pointing toward Trump.

“That’s nice if you want to to live in la-la land, but I think it’s much deeper than that,” said Amy Stephens, a former state House GOP leader. “If the Republican Party is going to gain ground … they have to change their strategies.”

Much more on this article if you click the link

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by randomparent

I've always joked that unaffiliated voters are really closet partisans with commitment issues. I still believe that. Despite protests to the contrary, I think very few voters truly approach campaign season with an open mind. And I'll further submit that opening the primary has been a very good thing for political data mining efforts. Those who study these things now have a much better idea who the left and right are in Colorado, even though a huge percentage of us have not officially declared a party affiliation.

When we moved to Louisville from Denver, I went to the County Clerk's office to change our registrations. I could only change DH's to "unaffiliated" as he wasn't doing it himself. They gave me the forms for him to fill out to change it to a party, but he decided he wasn't interested in doing so. That was 36 years ago.

[xeric]

Originally Posted by randomparent

I've always joked that unaffiliated voters are really closet partisans with commitment issues. I still believe that. Despite protests to the contrary, I think very few voters truly approach campaign season with an open mind. And I'll further submit that opening the primary has been a very good thing for political data mining efforts. Those who study these things now have a much better idea who the left and right are in Colorado, even though a huge percentage of us have not officially declared a party affiliation.

Could be. In my case, I was registered as a Democrat for awhile but got tired of all the junk mail. With the open primary system we have now, I’m working on my commitment issue by committing to always vote in the Democratic primaries.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by xeric

Could be. In my case, I was registered as a Democrat for awhile but got tired of all the junk mail. With the open primary system we have now, I’m working on my commitment issue by committing to always vote in the Democratic primaries.

When we lived in Illinois, you did not register with a party. When you went to the primary, they asked you which ballot you wanted. That way, if there was a huge race in the party you usually didn't vote for, you could "cross over" and vote in it. I always felt a little sleazy having to register with a party.

[Vision67]

One thing that Colorado gets right is the mail in ballots.

That makes it much easier and convenient for the voters. When I observe the voting chaos in other states, particularly Florida, I'm glad we do the mail in system.

The other states could fix their systems by copying ours...if they wanted to do it.