The shenanigans will continue, at least for now.

Last week, a judge denied a request from Colorado Republicans for an emergency injunction to prevent unaffiliated voters from casting ballots in the June 30 Republican primary.

U.S. District Court Judge Philip A. Brimmer said that preventing unaffiliated voters from receiving Republican primary ballots just weeks before ballots go out in the mail would lead to voter confusion, violating a longstanding federal court doctrine that cautions against changing election rules “on the eve of an election.”

It’s the correct decision by the judge. It’s also going to allow the same dirty games to continue.

Political parties have long corrupted their opponents’ primaries to get the most beatable candidate nominated. They run negative ads that have only a passing relationship with accuracy. They write letters to the editor. They influence friendly journalists. They arrange endorsements. All of these things would have happened regardless of what Judge Brimmer had decided.

But since 2016, when Colorado voters approved Proposition 108, voters who aren’t affiliated with a political party receive both Democratic and Republican primary ballots and can fill out and return one of them. Unaffiliated voters make up just over 50% of the state’s roughly four million active, registered voters, according to the most recent voter registration reports.

Proposition 108 put the dirty pool on overdrive. In Colorado, campaign funds are actively spent on the opponents’ primaries to get unaffiliated voters to help nominate the easiest to beat among the other party’s candidates. The get-out-the-vote efforts and ballot harvesting you would see in a general election are done in the opponents’ primaries. Further, independents who reliably vote one way are encouraged to participate in the other side’s candidate selection.

Brimmer had ruled on March 31 that the threshold to opt out of the state-run primary unconstitutionally infringed on the party’s freedom of association under the First Amendment. That means, by the next election cycle, it’s likely that the Republican nominating process in Colorado will be closed to unaffiliated voters.

The drafters of Amendment 108 intended to allow interference in the other party’s primary from the start. Voters that approved it, though, had good intentions, believing rightly that independents deserve a voice. But there are no good intentions that can’t be corrupted.

Sometimes, the shenanigans backfire.

This same strategy failed badly in 2016. The Democrats desperately wanted to run against Donald Trump because they thought they had a kill shot in the can with his infamous “grab them by their (genitalia)” quote in a 1995 conversation with Billy Bush of Access Hollywood.

They sabotaged other candidates that they feared, starting with Ben Carson. They WANTED Trump as the candidate.

We all know how well that kill shot worked.

Now, reprehensible rhetoric has ideologues attempting real kill shots. Three at last count with Jimmy Kimmel saying in a skit mimicking the White House Correspondents Dinner, “our first lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

Does anybody still think this guy is funny? If I said something like that, I would be fired and possibly arrested.

I digress.

Unaffiliated voters will participate in this year’s primaries. I hope they vote with their hearts and their brains, not because of the influence of a political party wanting to corrupt the other side. Between this election cycle and the next, the parties will maneuver to gain an advantage. It’s likely that unaffiliated voters will not be allowed to participate in the next Republican primary.

It’s not just a Republican thing. Kamala Harris received zero primary votes. I’m fine with that. She ran at the behest of the Democratic Party, and the party should determine who they want on the ballot.

But what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If you approve of the Harris move and oppose what Colorado Republicans want, you’re leaning so far left you can only walk in circles.

Independents certainly deserve a voice. They should get that voice by registering with a political party.