The recently formed Colorado Center Party, www.CoCenterParty.org , gained minor party status this month from the Secretary of State. Minor party status allows the party to nominate candidates for the general election ballot without having to collect petition signatures to get onto the ballot.

                The Colorado Center Party was launched in January of 2022 when they held their first election of officers and Executive Committee members. It is not affiliated with any national organization. The Center party has a platform that is pro-choice on abortion, fighting crime by maintaining cash bail for those accused of a crime and support for police with strong civilian oversight, and government financial responsibility through a balanced approach to taxes and spending. www.CoCenterParty.org/issues.

                The Colorado Center Party hopes to attract candidates to run under its banner in the sensible center that are independent minded and would have otherwise run as independents. The two major parties have continued to veer out to the extremes of left and right, leaving an opportunity for the Center Party to attract many of the 47 percent of Colorado’s voters who are unaffiliated and fed up with the hyper-partisan views of the two major parties. The Secretary of State’s voter rolls show that Democrats and Republicans continue to lose registered voters. In just August alone, the Democratic party lost 1,145 voters and the Republicans lost 1,394 voters, a strong indication that a majority of voters feel that change is needed.

                This year several Colorado municipalities will begin using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in their municipal elections. If voters like using RCV at the municipal level they may want to use it for the state level races too, which would be a big boost to the Colorado Center Party and other minor parties, greatly enhancing the candidate choices for voters.