According to a new report from KUSA-TV, Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez has put forward a plan that would rig elections in favor of Republicans: “Stop counting each vote equally.”
As governor, Lopez would propose legislation that eliminates the current one-person, one-vote system to create a Colorado electoral college, giving more voting power to rural, Republican counties in the state.
Colorado has not had a Republican governor in the last 50 years. In the last race, Governor Jared Polis defeated Republican Walker Stapleton by more than 10 percentage points. However, as highlighted by KUSA-TV, “Under Lopez’s plan, Polis would have received 181 electoral votes to Stapleton’s 263.”
“Greg Lopez doesn’t believe that each Coloradan’s vote should be counted equally. Rather than win at the ballot box, he has decided to cheat the system. But he is not alone,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Aidan Johnson. “Across the country, Republicans at all levels of government are attempting to destabilize our democracy and working to install dangerous politicians committed to overturning the will of the people. It’s never been more important to elect Democrats at every level.”
KUSA-TV: GOP candidate for Colorado governor says eliminate one-person, one-vote system
By: Kyle Clark | May 18, 2022
Key Points:
- “Coloradans have elected just one Republican governor in the last 50 years. A current GOP candidate for governor has an idea that could change that: stop counting each vote equally.”
- “Former Parker Mayor Greg Lopez, who holds the top line on the 2022 Republican primary ballot, says Colorado should create an electoral college system for electing candidates to statewide office.”
- “The plan, which would be the first of its kind on the state level, would give far more voting power to Coloradans in rural, conservative counties and dilute the voting power of Coloradans in more populous urban and suburban areas. Even as turnout numbers vary over time, the sheer number of rural conservative counties would create a built-in advantage for Republicans.”
- “9NEWS analyzed how Lopez’s proposal could have impacted the results of the 2018 gubernatorial race. In lieu of details on the plan from the Lopez campaign, 9NEWS sorted the 2018 county turnout percentages in the gubernatorial race and sorted then into as equally-sized tiers as possible, assigning 11 electoral votes to the highest turnout tier and three electoral votes to the lowest turnout tier.”
- “Under Lopez’s plan, that governor’s race would have been a runaway win for Republicans, who lost the actual race by double-digits when each vote was weighted equally.”
- “Democrat Jared Polis defeated Republican Walker Stapleton by more than 10 percentage points. Lopez’s electoral college plan would have swung that race for Republicans by nearly 30 percentage points, resulting in the equivalent of an 18 percentage point victory for Stapleton over Polis.”
- “Colorado’s rural, conservative counties had seven of the 10 highest voter turnout percentages in the 2018 race for governor. Those counties had an average of 1,077 ballots cast in the election.”
- “A 9NEWS analysis estimated that, under Lopez’s plan, Polis would have received 181 electoral votes to Stapleton’s 263. Lopez’s weighting system would have given the 2,013 combined voters in Hinsdale, Kiowa and Mineral counties a total of 33 electoral votes, more than double the 14 electoral votes of Denver, Arapahoe and Adams counties’ combined 761,873 voters.”
Read the full story here.
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Published: May 19, 2022 | Last Modified: Aug 29, 2022