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There’s at least one gubernatorial candidate happy to see Tom Tancredo enter the race for governor as a third-party candidate, and we’re not talking about Democratic candidate John Hickenlooper.

Libertarian candidate Jaimes Brown welcomes Tancredo into the race “with open arms.” While Republicans have been kvetching that Tancredo’s run will split the Republican Party in Colorado, essentially handing a win to Hickenlooper, Brown says having Tancredo run as a third-party candidate will only “raise the level of the governor debate.”

Tancredo held a news conference in Lakewood yesterday to officially announce his run as an American Constitution Party candidate. Tancredo chose to run after controversy surrounded the campaigns of Republican candidates Dan Maes and Scott McInnis. Tancredo does not believe either candidate has a fighting chance against John Hickenlooper. He gave the two a high-noon ultimatum to announce plans to drop out after the primary, depending on who wins. When Tancredo didn’t receive that confirmation, he threw his hat into the ring.

Two-party system broken?

Brown believes Tancredo’s run is further evidence that the nation’s two-party system is broken, and he uses the event to advocate for a system known as approval voting.

In an approval voting system, voters are allowed to vote for multiple candidates. The candidate with the most votes wins.

Advocates say the system cuts back on “cheap elections.” They say the two-party system forces voters to simply vote down their party line, ignoring third-party candidates that may be more attractive to them, but that don’t get the vote because voters don’t believe they have a chance of winning.

The system especially comes in handy during primaries, say advocates. Many voters vote for the primary candidate with the most money, or the most establishment backing because they feel that will position the candidate to better defeat the other party come the general election.

But Brown says the approval voting system puts an end to all of this.

“I get that all the time that you’ve got to vote for someone that’s going to win. Well, shouldn’t you vote for who you want to win, not for someone who you’ve already pre-determined as being the only possibility?” said Brown. “If you were falling into this trap of the Libertarian is going to take votes from the Republican, you might also vote for the Republican. But a lot of people don’t want to vote for the Republican, they want to vote for a Libertarian, or a Constitution, or even a Green for that matter.”

Not a new idea

Americans for Approval Voting says the system dates back to 12th Century Venice. The group says private member associations use the system to elect officers, and that a form of Approval Voting was used in the Security Council of the United Nations in 1996 to narrow the list of potential candidates for secretary general, according to the Americans for Approval Voting Web site.

In 1986, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party used the system in a straw poll taken by party leaders to determine presidential preference.

Brown says the approval voting system allows voters to vote for their favorite candidate, but also vote for the “lesser of the evils if you think that you could prevent the worst candidates from winning.”

“The whole issue of Tancredo in this race would be a moot point for the Republicans with approval voting,” he said. “Plurality voting splits the vote of similar ideologies. Approval voting would encourage the nearly 50 percent of eligible voters who don’t bother voting because the two parties don’t represent them.”

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