DENVER — Colorado voters rejected a major effort to rethink how future elections will be conducted in the state as Proposition 131 was expected to fail Thursday.

The headquarters of the Decision Desk is planned Proposition 131 would fail as the Colorado Secretary of State’s website showed unofficial results of 54.88% against and 45.12% for the proposition.

• Decision Desk HQ is tracking Colorado’s congressional races and ballot measures on the interactive map below.

Proposition 131 in Colorado, put on the ballot by a citizen initiative, aimed to/will change the way voters select candidates in primaries and later in general elections.

In an all-candidate primary, voters – regardless of party affiliation – would choose from candidates from all parties on the same ballot.

The top four candidates would then move on to the general election, which would be ranked by voters, with a winner selected after several vote counts, according to Denver Decides.

The new electoral process for Proposition 131 would impact elections for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Colorado Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, among other statewide offices.

Colorado’s current “semi-closed” election process allows registered voters of a party and unaffiliated voters to vote in that party’s primaries.

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The top four vote-getters in the all-candidate primary would then move on to the general election, where voters would rank their choices in order of preference.

With ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates by preference. A candidate needs a majority greater than 50% to be declared the winner.

If no candidate obtains this result in the first round, the candidate with the lowest vote total is eliminated. Voters who supported the eliminated candidate would still have their ballots counted. Their vote would simply go to their next choice.

This process continues until someone receives a majority of votes.

Several key Colorado lawmakers from both parties were in favor of Proposition 131, including U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, Gov. Polis, the mayors of Denver and Aurora, and former Congressman Ken Buck.

Proposition 131 would not apply to presidential elections or voting for district attorneys or other local government offices.

The change would have taken effect in 2026.

“Colorado’s benchmark elections are the best in the country. Proposition 131 would have sacrificed the safety and security of our election system to the whims of special interests and big corporations whose pay-to-play tactics would have flooded the state with even more dark money,” said Shad Murib , chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party. Party Tuesday evening. “We look forward to a more thoughtful, community-focused conversation about opportunities to safeguard our democracy and reduce the influence of dark money in our politics.” »

Linda Templin, executive director of Ranked Choice Voting For Colorado, also released a statement.

“It’s exciting that Coloradoans voted against a measure that would limit voting access for grassroots candidates,” she said. “It was unfortunate that ranked choice voting was not a measure in itself. We look forward to building a more responsive democracy in local elections and introducing a clean RCV measure in the future.

The Institute for Responsive Government – ​​a non-profit organization that works to “make government more efficient, more accessible and more responsive to the needs of real human beings – said that states considering ranked-choice voting “ should have a well-financed, well-designed and sustainable system. implementation plan – and, importantly, buy-in from election administrators who will oversee its deployment – ​​to address these challenges,” said Sam Oliker-Friedland, executive director of the Institute for Responsive Government.