It’s time to address the elephant in the room before it breaks all the furniture and embarrasses us in front of company. Again.
When last we visited, the Colorado Republican Party was lagging in fundraising and chairman Dave Williams was firing inside the tent at fellow pachyderms instead of the jackasses in the Democrat Party.
Now they’re trying to close more entrances into the tent by restricting future primary elections to just those still brave enough to admit they vote Republican in a state that is turning a scary shade of blue.
According to a report in Colorado Politics, the state GOP’s Central Committee is meeting Aug. 5 and will decide on an amendment that will help them reach that goal by essentially rigging this and future votes.
The vote on closing primary elections isn’t until later this fall, but in the August meeting an amendment will be put forth that allows the committee to pass measures by counting all absent and non-voting members as a “yes” vote.
That’s because they need 75% of the committee to approve closing the primary, and the last time they tried this only 33% of the committee agreed.
So if the new rule passes, the party will essentially claim your vote as a yes vote if you miss future meetings because a loved one died or you’re just tired of hearing the party infighting.
The Weld County Republican Party passed a resolution calling the state party’s maneuver a violation of the law and morally and ethically wrong.
We would add, insane.
“Automatically making a non-vote a yes vote flies in the face of the principles this country was built on,” Hunter Rivera, the Weld County GOP’s acting chairman, said in a statement.
“We have to collectively start focusing our efforts on electing Republicans to office rather than continuing to create purity tests or ideas like this amendment that only further divide the party,” he added.
The direction of the state GOP under Williams reminds us of a pirate t-shirt we once saw in a souvenir shop that read “The beatings will continue until moral improves.”
Williams appears to believe that if he restricts the voices allowed to vote in our primary elections to only those still bothering to register with a party, then more people will vote for the GOP nominee in the General Election.
We’re guessing he flunked math.
We’re willing to bet the Republican Central Committee will have more respect for the voting process and buck the idea of trying to fix their own elections by stuffing the proverbial ballot box with bogus votes.