A federal judge on Tuesday shut down the Colorado Republican Party's last-minute push to block unaffiliated voters from getting GOP primary ballots, keeping the state's June 30 primary on its current track. U.S. District Judge Philip A. Brimmer denied the party's emergency request, saying it was simply too late in the game to rewrite the rules, and county clerks will keep preparing to mail ballots under existing state law.
Judge's order and legal reasoning
In an order rejecting the GOP's April 20 motion, Brimmer wrote that the remedy the party wanted "is not supported by Colorado law" and warned that changing the system so close to voting could trigger serious voter confusion, as reported by Colorado Politics. His decision leaves in place the court's March 31 summary judgment ruling, which struck down as unconstitutional the statute that required a three-quarters central committee vote for a party to opt out of the semi-open primary.
The March 31 order, which remains part of the case record, focused on how that 75 percent threshold burdened the party's associational rights under the First Amendment. The detailed reasoning on the opt-out rule and those constitutional claims is laid out in the earlier ruling available through Justia.
Ballot timeline and who it affects
On the ground, the calendar is what really boxed the party in. Under Colorado election law, county clerks must send ballots to military and overseas voters by May 16 and can start mailing them to everyone else on June 8. That timeline means unaffiliated voters are set to receive party ballots under the current rules, according to Colorado Sun.
Unaffiliated voters now make up a majority of Colorado's roughly four million active registered voters, a reality Brimmer weighed when he assessed how disruptive any sudden rule change would be. With millions of ballots set to go out in a matter of weeks and local officials already gearing up, the judge concluded that the administrative chaos and confusion from a last minute switch would outweigh the harm the party claimed it would suffer.
Political pushback and interventions
The emergency motion did not just divide voters, it split Republicans too. The state's four Republican members of Congress and the National Republican Congressional Committee filed papers trying to intervene against the state GOP's request. When Brimmer denied the underlying motion, he said those intervention bids were moot, according to reporting by the Denver Gazette.
Lawyers for the Colorado GOP, including Randy Corporon and Alexander Haberbush, argued that the party faced "irreparable constitutional injury" because Brimmer's March ruling came down after the October 1 opt out deadline had already passed. They asked the court for narrow relief that would effectively let the party close its primary for this cycle anyway. Brimmer was not persuaded and wrote that the specific fix they wanted was not supported by state law. Neither Corporon nor interim party chair Eric Grossman responded to requests for comment, the Denver Gazette reported.
Legal context and what's next
Brimmer's March 31 decision took aim at only one piece of Colorado's election framework. The ruling knocked out the 75 percent opt out requirement but left the broader semi open primary system in place, so unaffiliated voters still get to participate for now. The case is expected to continue, likely through appeals or additional motions, according to case tracking by Democracy Docket.
If the Colorado GOP still wants to shut its primary doors in future cycles, Brimmer noted that the party has other paths. It could lean more heavily on the assembly or convention route for nominations under existing law or press lawmakers for a statutory change. In other words, the courthouse is not the only venue for this fight.
Officials who support open participation quickly cheered the ruling. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the court "made the right decision" and that the outcome "ensures that the Colorado June primary aligns with Colorado law." Colorado Democratic Party chair Shad Murib added that unaffiliated voters "deserve a voice," comments reported by Colorado Politics.
For now, while the constitutional battle plays out on paper, county clerks are sticking with the plan and marching toward the June 30 primary with unaffiliated voters still firmly in the mix.
