# Unaffiliateds rising: When primaries decide Colorado elections

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/freedom-unaffiliated-6377441/unaffiliateds-rising-when-primaries-decide-colorado-elections
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/freedom-unaffiliated-6377441/unaffiliateds-rising-when-primaries-decide-colorado-elections.md
Podcast: [Freedom Unaffiliated](https://stenobird.com/podcast/freedom-unaffiliated-6377441)
Published: 2026-06-17T19:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://thinkfreedom.org
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/b4f56149-44dc-4583-b95a-78c705a36d37.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/freedom-unaffiliated-6377441/episodes/unaffiliateds-rising-when-primaries-decide-colorado-elections
Duration seconds: 338

## Resource

It makes no sense to be a Republican in Colorado. Or a Democrat for that matter. On the day I turned 18, even before I bought my first legal 3.2 beer (remember 3.2 beer?), I went to the courthouse and registered to vote (remember registering to vote?). I joined the Republican Party. Even at 18, I knew not affiliating with a party diluted the power of my vote. Sure, everyone gets to vote in November. But one vote among millions isn’t nearly as powerful as a vote in a primary. Back then, unaffiliated voters were locked out of primaries. Republicans voted in Republican primaries, Democrats in Democratic primaries. The smaller the electorate, the more your vote mattered. As a Republican primary voter, my ballot was one of only a couple hundred thousand. As a delegate to the Republican state assembly, my vote was one of only a few thousand. At the county assembly it was one of hundreds. At my neighborhood caucus, I was one of fewer than 10. At one point, my vote represented more than 10% of all votes cast. That’s leverage. Rise of the unaffiliateds Then came Proposition 108 in 2016 , which I voted against. Now those smug, sanctimonious “independents” get both a Republican and Democratic primary ballot and can choose which one to return. Yet my desire to leverage my vote never changed. So I became unaffiliated. And like most Colorado voters, I never looked back. We unaffiliateds get to vote in either primary. This year I’ve decided to return a Democratic ballot. To my fellow independents, isn’t it nice having choices? Those poor schmucks still clinging to the romance of party affiliation, shackled to organizations that long ago wandered past the hey-guys-let’s-not-get-crazy zone, don’t have the freedom we do. The still-affiliated can enjoy the purity of party membership whil…

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