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Colorado has a sound election system, but we can improve our system substantially so it better serves voters' needs, takes advantage of our technology, and saves tax dollars.

House Bill 1303, the Colorado Voter Access & Modernized Elections Act, meets all of those goals.

If you're reading this, you likely voted by mail last November, and you're in good company: Seventy-two percent of Colorado voters joined you. Mail ballots are a convenient, secure and private way to cast a ballot that is increasingly popular among Colorado voters.

HB 1303 answers the demand of these voters while providing ample options for voters who prefer to vote in person. It eliminates the "inactive-failed-to-vote" status that created confusion for voters. It creates a graduated registration system that scales down the demand on the system as Election Day approaches.

Virginia’s state legislature has moved forward on Voter ID bills that will make it harder for the average voter to cast their ballot. The most current bill passed eliminates several currently-valid forms of Voter ID’s. This includes a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck that shows the name and address of the voter, or even a social security card. This is the third Voter ID bill in the past couple of years for the GOP-led state.

If every time a voter goes to the polls there is a new change, how are they going to know what they need to cast their vote? GOP state Reps and Senators have consistently rebuffed any effort in voter education efforts to keep people informed on such activity calling it a “waste of taxpayer dollars.” However, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling sided with Democrats in delaying implentation until July 1, 2014 to give an appropriate amount of time to get out and spread the word to voters of these new policies.

These bills are clearly another conservative attempt to suppress votes and make casting a ballot in elections more difficult. Why is it so important for the GOP to continue to make it more and more difficult for people to vote? What is the absolute necessity to continue to create more added confusion at the polls?

Voting is our established, constitutional right; It should be easy. It is already difficult enough to take time off of work and stand in the unnecessary long lines to make this happen. Voters don’t need added hoops to jump through.

State Senators Rodney Tom and Tim Sheldon have entered into an unholy alliance with the GOP on promises of power in this new 25-24 majority. Tom is the new majority leader and Sheldon has become president pro tempore. This new majority is calling themselves the Majority Coalition Caucus and says they are doing this in order to create “bipartisan solutions” for the state.

Democratic Senate leaders are calling this farce for what it is: BINO; “Bipartisan In Name Only.” The new 2013 legislation session has already begun divisively because this is not a move about creating actual solutions, but rather a power grab by Republicans to keep Democrats and progressives from moving forward with the agenda that they were elected on.

Democratic leaders have already moved forward with purging Tom and Sheldon from their websites and databases and pledging zero percent support for their re-election.

Democrats were elected into a majority to push forward with real progressive ideas. The voters should be able to depend on their electors to stand on what they ran on. For these two state Senators to go against this merely for the sake of holding a title shows exactly how little respect they have for their party, their own values, and true progress for the state of Washington.

As far as Senators Tom and Sheldon are concerned, they should enjoy their reign of “power” while they can. Elections for the state legislative body happen every two years in Washington, and progressives will be ready to take these seats back.

As of right now, there are only two states that don’t award their EC votes on a winner-takes-all basis -- Maine and Nebraska. Instead, they allocate their votes by Congressional districts. Republicans are now making a push for the swing states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan to follow suit.

Conservatives have acknowledged that demographics are no longer on their side, and in a move that can only be seen as extreme desperation, they are ready to play dirty. By having complete control of these states’ governments, they are ready to move forward with this power grab to change the course of Presidential elections as we know it.

The GOP lost the national popular vote for their House candidates by more than one million votes, yet still maintained control of the chamber. This was only possible through extreme gerrymandering of Congressional districts -- squeezing all urban areas into smaller districts, while creating huge sprawling rural districts where less people live. These tactics not only decrease the voices of the majority, but give underrepresentation to them as well.

Now, they want to use these unfair and misappropriated maps in the Presidential elections.

Republican leaders should be working towards building a more inclusive platform for their party, but instead are busy with dirty politics as usual. Fair warning: there will be political fallout should they attempt to push these measures through. Not only will we as progressives work to fight against them, but we will be on the frontline banging the battle drum.

When conservatives don’t like reality, they create their own.

Wanting to secede from the United States is not only disrespectful to the office of the presidency but it is highly disrespectful to the country itself, our troops that serve to protect this country and every citizen that resides within. That kind of attitude is unpatriotic and downright un-American. Thankfully, only a little over 35,000 people have signed the Texas petition out of over 25 million people that reside in the state.

One person does not speak for many; neither does a minority speak for a majority. Within a democracy, the majority rules and here the majority has clearly spoken. Republican ideas were once again rejected and progress has won out. But the time has come for these silly parlor games and extreme bitterness and anger to end. We need real solutions to our nation’s problems. We need cooperation and togetherness, not obstruction and divisiveness. If we work together, we can continue to prove what makes this country so great and that we can work through our differences and continue to make it better.