Editorial: 2016 election shows need for more competition

We all had our moments during the 2016 election.

Yard signs were defaced. Facebook friends were unfriended. A perfectly pleasant conversation with a family member took a left (or right) turn.

And now we’re done. For a while, anyhow.

To those of you who took the time to complete your ballot and vote on Tuesday, thank you. Outcomes aside, you participated in our democratic process.

And that’s really what this is all about. The opportunity to participate in the process, and to shape the direction of our country, our state, our county and our city.

More voices and more choices.

NOV. 8 ELECTION: Unofficial results

We took a constructive step forward with the passage of Propositions 107 and 108. They will return Colorado to a presidential primary and will enable unaffiliated voters to participate in the primary process. We are involving more people in our process.

But there is more we can do, as is evidenced by the lack of competition in several statewide and local races.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis (D) secured a lopsided victory over his Republican challenger, Nick Morse. It was the same for State Sen. John Kefalas. Democrat Jeni Arndt didn’t even have a challenger in her state house race.

In Colorado, districts lines are redrawn every 10 years using census data.

State legislative re-districting is done by an 11-member bipartisan commission with four members appointed by legislative leaders, three by the governor and four by chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. No more than six may be from one political party.

Gerrymandering is the process of drawing lines in favor of one political party or another. When a district is controlled by a party, that party is inevitably inclined to want to hold the district. And pick up as many others as it possibly can. Elected officials and their parties have a vested interest in the outcome.

Competitiveness suffers. And so can the influence of minority voters, whose populations we know have historically been split in the redistricting process.

Other states have revisited their processes, instead using independent commissions or electronic methods to redraw lines.

And so it is not the fault of the Republican or Democratic parties or their chairs that we had no opposition to Jeni Arndt or next to no opposition in other districts. There are certainties baked into our system that disenfranchise challengers.

We are a purple state. Our most recent returns from the 2016 election tell us this. Of the more than 2.6 million people who voted in Colorado on Tuesday, 891,002 were registered Republicans, 855,045 were Democrats and 822,342 were unaffiliated. And as such, our districts should not be so clearly blue or red.

We must work for more and better participation in the political process. Propositions 107 and 108 are a step in the right direction.

Colorado should tackle a broken redistricting system next.

Note to readers: This editorial initially contained incorrect information about how Colorado engages in redistricting.