Colorado Independents: Partisan Drift or Closed Primary Strategy?

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Unaffiliated-voter numbers in Colorado decline (By Kurtis Lee, The Denver Post) In August, active unaffiliated voters dropped to 29 percent, while Republicans rose to 37 percent and Democrats remained even at 33 percent.
• FROM THIS PAST FEBRUARY -- Bill rejected that would open Colorado primaries to unaffilliated voters (By Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post) Unaffiliated voters still will have to declare themselves a Republican or a Democrat to vote in a Colorado primary. A House committee Thursday killed a bill that would have allowed unaffiliated voters to vote in primaries without having to give up their unaffiliated status.