Colorado lawmakers’ use of an anonymous private survey to prioritize bills impacting the state budget “thwarts the entire purpose” of the Colorado Open Meetings Law because it shields the public “from knowledge that it would otherwise be entitled to know,” a judge found Friday.

While describing the quadratic voting process as “a useful tool that enables elected representatives to consider as many proposals as possible,” Denver District Court Judge David Goldberg prohibited senators and representatives from using it “without full transparency as required by” the open meetings law.

Ruling on a lawsuit brought by the conservative Public Trust Institute and Douglas County resident David Fornof, Goldberg determined that the voting structure — as administered for legislators by the RadicalxChange nonprofit — is a “meeting” under the statute, which considers gatherings of two or more members of a state public body to be “open to the public at all times” if the body discusses public business related to its policy-making function.