Boulder is among the handful of Colorado cities and towns that use ranked choice voting for their municipal elections.
In 2023, Boulder voters used the system, overwhelmingly approved by the electorate in 2020, to reelect Mayor Aaron Brocket. The election was run by the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder’s Office, which is led by Clerk Molly Fitzpatrick, a Democrat who is also president of the Colorado County Clerks Association.
If voters approve Proposition 131, the November ballot measure that would move Colorado to an all-candidate primary system followed by ranked choice general elections, clerks across the state would be tasked with implementing the changes. They’d likely look to guidance from Fitzpatrick, since she is one of the few election officials in the state with experience running a ranked choice election.
“We are one of the best-resourced counties in the state,” she told The Colorado Sun, highlighting how her office consulted with mathematicians and statisticians across the world to carry out the Boulder mayoral race in 2023. “I think it’s one thing for my county to do it. I think it’s a whole ‘nother thing to ask a tiny county to do it. There are just unanswered questions about how this would look and who is paying for it.”
In ranked choice voting elections, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If a candidate wins more than 50% of the first-preference votes, they are declared the winner. If no candidate reaches that threshold, candidates with the fewest first-preference supporters are eliminated, and their voters’ second choices are added to the tally. The process continues until one candidate exceeds 50% of the total vote.
The Colorado County Clerks Association has warned that local election officials across the state aren’t ready to implement Proposition 131 by 2026, which is when the measure, if passed, is supposed to go into effect.
That’s part of the reason the association, which is neutral on the ballot measure, supported an amendment to a broader elections bill debated by the legislature this year that requires 12 Colorado municipalities in counties of a certain size and with a specific demographic makeup to conduct ranked choice elections before a ranked choice election could be used in a race for state or federal office. Additionally, the amendment said Colorado could not move to the new primary system either until that requirement has been met.
That means the 2026 implementation won’t happen. In fact, the amendment made it possible that Proposition 131 would never go into effect — that is unless the legislature reverses course.
Gov. Jared Polis, a supporter of Proposition 131, nearly vetoed the elections measure, Senate Bill 210 because of the clause, which was added in the final days of the General Assembly’s lawmaking term and first reported publicly by The Sun. He called on lawmakers and clerks to find a way to implement Proposition 131 by 2028 if the measure passes.
“If you ask me right now, at this moment, if I know that 64 counties can implement this, the answer is resoundingly ‘no,’” said Fitzpatrick, who hasn’t taken a formal position on Proposition 131. “And we need to take that seriously.”
The Sun interviewed Fitzpatrick about her experience running Boulder’s ranked choice mayoral election, what county clerks would need to feel comfortable implementing Proposition 131 and whether they think they can be prepared to run all-candidates primaries and ranked choice general elections statewide by 2028.
The following has been edited for clarity and length.
The Colorado Sun: How did you prepare for the 2023 mayoral election in Boulder?
Boulder County Clerk Molly Fitzpatrick: We knew in 2020 that we would be implementing ranked choice voting for the mayoral election in 2023, so we had lots of heads-up. In 2021, we got started on legislation at the Colorado Capitol. That legislation specifically talked about creating some rulemaking for how ranked choice voting could work. It also talked about timelines for getting voting equipment compatible with ranked choice voting. In 2022 is when we hired our project manager, who was dedicated to ranked choice voting and ranked choice voting only. In 2023 is when we did a lot of voter education, outreach work and then we conducted our election.
The Sun: How did the election go?
Fitzpatrick: It was a significant amount of work. It was not the easiest thing that we’ve done by any stretch of the imagination. I am very proud of what we did for the city of Boulder voters. I think our goal the whole time was “let’s run this election under the same standards that we have for any election we run.” And we were able to execute, I think, on that vision very well.
The Sun: Did you get the sense that voters understood the system? Were there many ballots filled out incorrectly?
Fitzpatrick: We had a lot of questions around how tabulation would work, and so we put up a website with different terms that voters would need to understand in order to know how tabulation worked. In terms of voters filling out ballots, anecdotally speaking, we didn’t have a lot of people who improperly marked their ballot. We did tons of education on that front. We did some events. We also included an insert with the mail ballots. And then we obviously put instructions on the ballot itself. We did receive some phone calls from folks about filling their ballot out, but, for the most part, the questions were around tabulation.
Downtown Boulder is seen on Thursday, June 24, 2021. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun)
The Sun: What would Colorado clerks need to feel comfortable running an election under Proposition 131 should the measure pass?
Fitzpatrick: I think it’s a question for the Secretary of State’s Office, because most of the systems and the requirements are, I would say, within their control. There are technologies that are not developed that need to be developed, including the risk-limiting audit software and including election night results reporting. It’s important for them to be developed on a timeline that gives counties a runway to practice before they deploy them in a live environment. This is a massive change to our election system, and so we want to make sure that the secretary’s office is creating training for local election officials on everything from ballot layout to candidate training to recounts. There’s just a million things that you have to consider when you’re running ranked choice voting. There’s also rulemaking. And then of course there’s voter education. The campaign in 2018 to inform unaffiliated voters in Colorado on how to vote in partisan primaries I think is a template of what could be used. But I think it would need to be like that campaign on steroids, because it’s such a bigger deal. It comes down to not only marking your ballot, but understanding tabulation, because voters in Colorado are very engaged.
Editor’s note: A risk-limiting audit is the statistical way Colorado elections officials double check the accuracy of election results. Risk limiting audit software for ranked choice voting is currently being developed by the state. And while local governments and other states have the capability to report ranked choice results, Colorado doesn’t have the ability to do that on the statewide level yet.
The Sun: How long do you think it would take to get all of that done?
Fitzpatrick: It’s really not for us to say. I think it’s for the Secretary of State’s Office to say when they could meet the requirements.
The Sun: The governor wants the legislature to work with clerks to find a way to implement Proposition 131, should it pass, by 2028. Is that realistic? Are you all on the same page?
Fitzpatrick: I think if all of the systems are in place, we could implement this in 2028.
The Sun: If you had one final message to the citizens of Colorado on Proposition 131 from the clerks’ perspective, what would it be?
Fitzpatrick: We’re always going to work incredibly hard to ensure that the will of the voters is fulfilled. Practically, what that means to me, is that we will lead the legislation to implement this ballot measure. And we will ensure that counties are set up to be successful. Right now, 2026 seems completely unreasonable to have these systems developed by. But we’re going to fulfill the will of the voters.
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