CO: Independent Seeks to Ease Ballot Access Restrictions

The Vail Daily reports on the efforts of independent legislator Kathleen Curry to ease ballot access restrictions in the state:

The only unaffiliated member in Colorado's Legislature wants to make it easier for other independent candidates to get on the ballot, but she needs the support of the two-party system from which she walked away. Rep. Kathleen Curry, a rancher from Gunnison, was a Democrat until last year when she announced she didn't fit into either party and was switching her affiliation to unaffiliated. But her switch came too late for her to win a spot on the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate and now, after winning election three times as a Democrat, she's facing the prospect of mounting a write-in campaign for re-election.  Curry is asking lawmakers to shorten the waiting time for unnaffiliated and minor party members to get on the ballot but the bill, up for its first vote on Monday, wouldn't apply to her.  About a third of Colorado voters are registered as unaffiliated voters and they're courted by the major parties in tight races. Unaffiliated candidates in state races are more rare and Colorado is one of eight states to require that independent candidates show they haven't been affiliated with a party for a certain length of time.