10 October 2022 (msn.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
County clerks across Colorado say they\u2019re bracing for a surge of highly motivated election deniers working as poll watchers or election judges in the November midterms \u2014 part of a nationwide attempt to manufacture evidence of election fraud.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brooke Wyatt reaches to catch a windblown Tina Peters banner during an election watch party for Peters\u2019 ultimately unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination for Colorado Secretary of State on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. In 2020 while serving as Mesa County clerk, Peters and a deputy clerk reportedly allowed an unauthorized man to make copies of voting equipment servers. Peters now faces felony charges.\u00a9 AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post\/TNS<\/p>\n\n\n\n Local, state and federal officials, alongside political experts, have repeatedly debunked claims of election fraud but clerks in Chaffee, Eagle, El Paso, Fremont, Garfield, Summit and Weld counties told the Denver Post they\u2019re still seeing an increasing number of bad-faith poll watchers and election judges around the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saatva HD Mattress – Long Lasting Support<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ad<\/a>saatva.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Encouraged, even recommended, by party officials or far-right voices with national reach<\/a>, the clerks say those watchers and judges have antagonized or threatened election workers, wrongly rejected hundreds of ballots and one man in Chaffee County even tried to steal a password to the election system last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The irony sits in the notion that these far-right election judges and poll watchers are damaging the country\u2019s foundation of fair and free elections, all under the guise of fighting for election security, Larry Jacobs, a professor of political history, elections and voting behavior at the University of Minnesota, said. Their goals appear to be to sow doubt and prop up losing candidates. The effort continues former President Donald Trump\u2019s work to overturn the 2020 election<\/a> except it\u2019s now more sophisticated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s moved from spur of the moment, ad hoc, to an organized, well-funded, premeditated effort to make charges of election fraud,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Election officials should prepare for widespread claims of fraud following the upcoming November midterms, Jacobs said. The severity of those claims in the months to come could serve as a bellwether for the already contentious 2024 presidential election<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Federal officials have repeatedly said that the country\u2019s elections are not at risk from outside interference but at the same time, CBS reported<\/a> that election officials in seven states \u2014 Colorado included \u2014 are dealing with more and more threats to their personal safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n County clerks put forward an air of optimism, but the changing landscape of American elections is wearing on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvery day you wonder \u2018What fresh hell is today going to bring?\u2019\u201d Chaffee County Clerk Lori Mitchell said. \u201cThese things are coming out of nowhere and you\u2019re just trying to do the best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mitchell and her colleagues are ramping up training efforts to help staff de-escalate potential conflicts and tighten security measures. But most of all they\u2019re leaning on the most powerful tool they have: transparency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The clerks are inviting all those who doubt that Colorado is home to the country\u2019s gold standard of free and fair elections to see the process in action. These clerks live in a world of spreadsheets, bipartisan teams, chains of custody, signature verifications, logic and accuracy tests and risk-limiting audits<\/a>. They each exude a passion for the process and a sense of pride in converting doubters into believers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even so, there are those who remain unconvinced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe built a campaign going into 2022, daring them to do the same thing they did in 2020, certain people, certain actors in certain areas,\u201d conservative radio host Joe Oltmann told The Denver Post. \u201cWe know that the system is compromised. The judiciary, the legislative branch is compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vicky Tonkins, chair of the El Paso County Republican Party, said she believes ballots were cast on behalf of dead people in the 2020 election, questions the accuracy of her county\u2019s voter rolls and expresses confusion that even though Trump received a higher number of votes in 2020, his overall margin of victory within the county shrank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is the first time in many years when people have been this engaged,\u201d Tonkins said. \u201cIf you can\u2019t be questioned and prove that you are the gold standard then what are you trying to hide?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n County clerks across Colorado say they\u2019ve seen election deniers in every election since 2020. They\u2019ll volunteer as poll watchers and some even work as election judges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watchers do just that. They watch as clerks, their staff and judges prepare ballots, verify signatures and count votes, El Paso County Clerk Chuck Broerman said. They can represent a political party, a specific candidate or those backing a certain ballot issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Election judges actually participate in the process, working certain machines, collecting drop boxes, verifying signatures and more, Broerman said. Judges are appointed by political parties and work in bipartisan teams to ensure fairness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some watchers and judges come in with a confirmation bias, expecting to find fraud, Broerman said. Others are trained by election denial groups to look for certain things and ask specific questions designed specifically to bolster a fraud claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming into the process convinced fraud is already happening puts the entire system at risk, Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association and former Arapahoe County clerk and recorder, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf somebody comes in thinking they\u2019re going to find a kraken and they\u2019re hell-bent on finding a kraken, what are they willing to do to get their 15 minutes of fame?\u201d Crane said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Telling the bad actors from the legitimate volunteers is a difficult task, Broerman said. At times impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In late September Tonkins \u2013 for unclear reasons \u2013 removed three of the county Republican party\u2019s longest-standing election judges and replaced them with new, unfamiliar ones, Broerman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt seems to be mean spirited or punitive,\u201d Broerman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever Tonkins\u2019 rationale might be, plugging election deniers into clerks\u2019 offices is part of a nationwide effort to destabilize the system, Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Voting Rights Program for the New York University School of Law\u2019s Brennan Center for Justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those bad actors represent a small minority of legitimate poll workers across the country, Morales-Doyle said. But enough of them exist that his organization published guidelines to help election officials ensure that poll workers with ill intentions aren\u2019t able to disrupt elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat\u2019s being done here is an outright attack on our democracy and it\u2019s undermining public faith in our democracy,\u201d Morales-Doyle said. \u201cThe more it grows and the longer it goes on, the scarier it becomes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n High-profile and far-right personalities like conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell<\/a> and Trump\u2019s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn<\/a>, are among those feeding the flames, Morales-Doyle said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Colorado, Joe Oltmann<\/a> is one of those voices, the clerks agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Related video: Voter turnout will be crucial in gubernatorial election outcome<\/p>\n\n\n\n View on Watch<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oltmann told The Post that fraud runs rampant throughout the country, particularly with electronic voting machines built by companies like Dominion Voting Systems<\/a>, Election Systems & Software, Smartmatic<\/a> and Clear Ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The machines were compromised by \u201cradical leftists,\u201d Oltmann said, and skew results to favor liberal or \u201cestablishment\u201d GOP candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oltmann is quick to mention Eric Coomer<\/a>, the former director of product strategy and security for Dominion, and share rumors or even lascivious allegations about him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conspiracy theories about the voting machines have repeatedly been debunked, but Oltmann said the network of poll watchers and election judges that agree with him will find more evidence. He also said he\u2019s aware of training programs for these people in places like El Paso County, though he doesn\u2019t conduct the training personally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re very confident we have the people in place to be the final nail in the coffin, to make sure we have enough information in place so we can say \u2018here it is,\u2019\u201d Oltmann said. \u201cThey\u2019ve stolen the voice of the American people and we\u2019ve had enough.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, Tonkins claims she personally witnessed election fraud in 2020 and accused county officials of refusing to investigate her claim of ballots being cast on behalf of dead people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s not true, Broerman countered. He did receive a list of 759 names from Tonkins, supposed dead people who had also reportedly cast ballots. But it was a \u201cbad list\u201d full of common names like John Smith or Mary Jones, each missing dates of birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the 759 listed by Tonkins, only one person died and had another person attempt to submit a ballot under their name, Broerman said. County officials caught that one vote even before Tonkins reached out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd we had already turned that into the District Attorney for investigation,\u201d Broerman said. \u201cOur system to catch these people works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tonkins went on to question how Trump\u2019s margin of victory decreased in 2020 even though he received more votes than in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m not a mathematician but I know more means more,\u201d Tonkins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s margin of victory decreased in 2020<\/a> because more people voted that year (364,769) than in 2016<\/a> (307,115) and because President Joe Biden received a greater share of votes (161,941) than Hillary Clinton (108,010), election data shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Broerman said he spent nearly an hour explaining this and more to Tonkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Tonkins and Oltmann suggest that fraud still exists in the country\u2019s electoral system. Plus, isn\u2019t more involvement in the process a good thing, they ask? Isn\u2019t it good to ask questions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes welcomes questions but said at some point skeptics will have to trust her expertise. And some poll watchers aren\u2019t actually seeking answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019re definitely being trained that they need to find evidence and proof of any and all the conspiracy theories that have been pushed since 2020,\u201d Koppes said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in some cases the watchers have become confrontational or even tried to infiltrate the election systems, Chaffee County Clerk Lori Mitchell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year a poll watcher waited until a judge left their post, walked behind a staff counter and wrote down a temporary password for the election system, Mitchell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was a school board election, if you can believe that,\u201d Mitchell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The watcher was quickly caught and forced to discard the stolen password, she said. It wouldn\u2019t have allowed him access to the system anyway because of the county\u2019s two-factor authentication security measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt put us on high alert,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cYou\u2019re just so stunned at the time. It\u2019s just beyond the pale of absurdity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Something similar happened in Mesa County in 2020 after Tina Peters, the county clerk there, and a deputy clerk reportedly allowed an unauthorized man to make copies of voting equipment servers. A leading figure in the QAnon conspiracy theory group later posted passwords from the equipment online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peters, who later ran \u2013 unsuccessfully \u2013 for Secretary of State, now faces felony charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mitchell said she also received threatening messages from election deniers claiming she was in cahoots with Dominion\u2019s Eric Coomer, who lives in Chaffee County. She held back tears at the thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was like \u2018We know where you live\u2019 and \u2018We\u2019re gonna stake out your town until you give (Coomer) up,\u2019\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cIt got very scary for a while there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Koppes said things haven\u2019t gone that far in Weld County but she regularly fields loaded or nonsensical questions from people looking for fraud. She laughed, recalling a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne asked me if I could name every wire coming off my computer,\u201d Koppes said. \u201cThey definitely have received poor training.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Koppes said she\u2019s heard that as many as 100 watchers from election denial groups might participate in Weld County\u2019s election in November but expects maybe a few dozen will actually show up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As an example of the potential damage even one bad judge can wreak, Crane recalled auditing results for the Boulder County Clerk\u2019s Office after the 2020 election. He noticed something off about the work of one Republican election judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the process of 49 minutes he examined 897 signatures and rejected 889 of them,\u201d Crane said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the judge\u2019s intent remains unclear, he risked throwing out the votes of nearly 900 people, Crane said. He was fired and the case was turned over to the district attorney who ultimately did not file any charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, Crane said a bipartisan team of signature judges caught the error immediately after it happened and overturned 98% of the thrown-out signatures<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe process worked as it should but it\u2019s also why we need to keep pushing forward,\u201d Crane said. \u201cIt really is a zero-trust approach to elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even in smaller places like Fremont County, Clerk Justin Grantham said he\u2019s noticed the trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have one watcher and he did convey to me that he doesn\u2019t trust the machine,\u201d Grantham said. \u201cHe thinks they cheat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The clerks all respond to the skepticism with the same message: come see for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019re proud of the state\u2019s election system, training processes, built-in redundancies, bipartisan teams, security systems, signature verifications (manual and automatic) and risk-limiting audits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Garfield County Clerk Jean Alberico said she\u2019s trained multiple people skeptical of the system to be election judges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say they were confrontational but they asked a lot of questions that sort of alluded that things were going on,\u201d Alberico said. \u201cI had them work with my veteran judges and I think it was very eye-opening for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t know that I completely swayed them but they had their eyes opened,\u201d Alberico continued. \u201cThey really understood that we follow some very, very, very tight processes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That type of transparency is perhaps the most persuasive argument clerks have, Morales-Doyle said. And they\u2019ll need it because after the November election he anticipates a wave of people refusing to accept the results and then a spat of recount campaigns, like the one that followed Tina Peters\u2019 failed bid for Secretary of State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem is also exacerbated by an increasing number of election deniers running for office across the country, Morales-Doyle said. And just how many people will refuse to accept the results of the November midterms likely depends on the outcomes of those races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In turn, he\u2019s watching to see how loud the conspiracy theorists blow their horns in November as a possible indication of what lies ahead for the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if secretaries of state, county clerks, election judges and the general public can hold their ground through the noise in the elections ahead, Morales-Doyle said he\u2019s optimistic the movement will eventually fade away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a92022 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at denverpost.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Conrad Swanson, The Denver Post – Sunday React Comments 10 October 2022 (msn.com) County clerks across Colorado say they\u2019re bracing for a surge of highly motivated election deniers working as poll watchers or election judges in the November midterms \u2014 part of a nationwide attempt to manufacture evidence of election fraud. Brooke… Continue reading <\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat are they willing to do to get their 15 minutes of fame?\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBeyond the pale of absurdity.\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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