Restore the Balance in politics by voting this June

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) — Mesa County’s election safety debacle led by former elections Clerk Tina Peters made headlines nationwide.

Seven Mesa County political leaders turned activists, and created a bunch to teach the public on the hazard of political extremism. Restore the Balance, is a tri-partisan effort to reject all extremism in politics by rallying voters from each occasion.

The group of Mesa County voters is encouraging others to get energetic in opposing extremism by voting at the main and basic elections, “Obviously we are not alone,” Tim Sarmo, former Regional Manager for the Colorado Department of Local Affairs stated.

How did we get to this degree of frustration in our group? “There’s been a lot of things that have gone on, we’ve seen what happened with the Clerk’s office, ” Dennis Kirtland, former GJ City Council Member says, “I mean that was probably the most high profile thing that we had.”

Kirtland joined six different political leaders, who typically discovered themselves on reverse sides to talk out in opposition to extremism in politics, “The opportunity is when we work together, so many good things happen and I mean the divided government has been a plague in the country,” Kirtland says.

In a Grand Junction Sentinel editorial, Restore the Balance organizers say, “We are not against principled partisanship from any political party. We are against extremism, whether from the left or right.”

Former Colorado Secretary of State Bernie Buescher joined the struggle, “This is Grand Junction, this is Mesa County, and this is a community saying we have had enough,” Buescher stated, “We know there are a lot of causes, 24-hour news, campaigns that have figured out that negative stuff works, well we have got to figure out a way to stand up to that.”

Restore the Balance is standing up by growing a candidate questionnaire to find out candidate positions relative to extremism. The group’s inaugural assembly sparked a dialog between the public and group organizers…

“As a younger person I think we are kind of sick of lip service and so I just want to hear something tangible that you would like to accomplish in the next year.”

“I totally agree with the idea of ranked choice voting that’s the only way we are ever going to get past parties and elect people.”

“Somebody asked for donations, this is not about a donation, you are asking for an investment in the future of this community.”