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Among the long list of changes on your ballot — and yes, it is a very long list — is a proposal to drastically change Colorado elections that is confusing, costly, will increase money in politics and is based on false promises: Proposition 131. I’m voting “no” and I hope you’ll join me. We may want to reform ballot access but this is not the right way.

This would change Colorado’s elections to a “jungle primary/ranked-choice voting” model, sort of. It’s more a jumbled-up hybrid of ranked-choice voting and jungle primary. Some people like one and not the other, but under this proposal you get both whether you like it or not. But the mess doesn’t stop there.

Don’t be fooled by the simple “vote for whatever candidate you want” promises in ads. Only about half of Colorado candidates would be impacted by 131: U.S. Senate and House, statewide offices like governor and attorney general and legislative races. United States President, district attorneys, county elected officials, municipal elected officials and other local races would not be affected. Confused yet? That’s the point.

Let’s keep going, because the way you would vote will be much more complicated if 131 passes. In the primary, voters would have one vote per race, no matter how many candidates or their affiliation for those federal, state and legislative races. For the U.S. President, district attorney and local races you would vote either the Republican or Democratic ballot for candidates as we do now. More confusion. Local races? Different too.

In the general election, voters would rank their votes by preference with four votes in each of the federal, statewide and legislative races. If no one gets 50%, the race goes to a computerized runoff that spits out an eventual winner. Didn’t vote all the way through because you got confused? Your vote is tossed and you’ll never know. Like how Colorado can verify and audit races via your paper ballot? Gone.

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131 is a hot mess and — who run our elections statewide — are saying it is a recipe for disaster because Colorado will have to change technology, processes, and voter education for virtually every step in our elections by 2026. Republican and Democratic clerks are asking us not to do this. We trust them to run our elections — we should trust their advice on our future elections too. And it’s expensive — nonpartisan staff estimates it will cost state and local taxpayers about . That’s a lot of money to “fix” something that no one — even those funding the measure — acknowledge isn’t broken.

The ultra-rich guy behind this measure claim it will reduce partisan politics, but that is not what the facts say. Last year, the other states and cities that use ranked-choice voting and found little to no evidence it lives up to its promises of more moderate candidates, less partisanship, or increased diversity in candidates elected to office.

And a shows a vote cast in a ranked-choice voting election is 10 times more likely to have a mistake that will invalidate a vote without the voter knowing. 10 times more likely your vote won’t count.

And lastly, there is the money. In other states with this model, the biggest piggy bank wins — that’s not what I want Colorado to become. Join me in voting “no” on 131. Let’s not let the ultra-rich guy pull a fast one on us.

Kerry Donovan is the former president pro tempore for the Colorado State Senate and served from 2015- 2023. She now runs her family ranch and helps Ulysses Strategies advise rural candidates and issues. She lives in East Vail with her husband, Shad Murib, who is the chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, two dogs, and a one-eyed cat.