Commissioners issue scathing rebuke to conspiracy theoristsEven though they’ve already answered numerous questions about the election integrity controversy surrounding Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, the Mesa County Board of Commissioners on Monday answered them again, and then asked a few of their own.

In a scathing rebuke to more criticism from county residents who continue to claim without evidence that the county’s election system is somehow broken, the three-member commission repeated what they have been saying for weeks now:

There is nothing wrong with the election equipment the county has been using for years, nor will there be with the new ones it was forced to obtain last month because Peters didn’t bother to show that the old ones hadn’t been compromised, the three Republican commissioners said.

Even Peters herself said shortly after the 2020 elections that it had gone off without a hitch, and never questioned the integrity of the Dominion voting machines she and her predecessors have been usinguntil conspiracy theorists started making unproven accusations, Commissioner Janet Rowland said.

The county, along with the rest of the state, is and has long been using paper ballots, Commissioner Cody David added, despite conspiracy theorists disputing the use of paper ballots.

The Dominion machines that 62 of 64 Colorado counties have long used to tabulate the results of successful Republican and Democratic candidates alike, and have never failed a post-election audit of cast ballots proving their accuracy, and there have been hundreds of such audits, Commissioner Scott McInnis said.

“Mesa County, Colorado, is not fraud-central of the United States,” McInnis said. “I want you to know that the clerk never once told me prior to this, never once complained about the Dominion machines. Never once did the previous clerk complain about those machines. Never once did the previous, previous clerk complain about that.”

When this situation began last month after the Secretary of State’s Office decertified the county’s election machines because Peters and some members of her staff allegedly participated in violating security protocols, and the county was facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in replacing them, the commissioners tried to look at the only other election machines authorized to be used in Colorado — Clear Ballot.

MEETING WAS SCHEDULED

The commissioners then set up a meeting with Peters to talk about a bid she had requested and received from Clear Ballot, but the clerk was and continues to be nowhere to be found.

“We had a meeting scheduled with Tina on Aug. 16 for her to talk about this quote from Clear Ballot and she did not show, she did not call in and she did not send anyone,” Rowland said. “I think the system we have now is very secure, and arguably the best in the United States.”

Peters and her deputy, Belinda Knisley, are both the subject of local, state and federal investigations into possible criminal violations that involved revealing secure passwords and hard drives with conspiracy theorists. As a result, both also have been temporarily prohibited from conducting this fall’s elections.

Knisley also is facing felony charges related to a human resources investigation that is looking into allegations that she created a hostile work environment because of those state and FBI investigations.

She has been placed on paid administrative leave.

Rowland said supporters of Peters and Knisley who continue to ask the same questions over and over about the integrity of the system — and offering no evidence that something may be wrong — don’t seem to understand that the county has added three additional checks on ballot tabulation for the fall election.

Not only will they be counted by the newest ballot tabulation machines built, but they will be counted a second time using Clear Ballot machines. They also will be hand-counted, and all the ballots will be posted online for anyone to do their own count.

And, as always, a risk-limiting audit of ballot counts will be conducted afterwards.

“Even if Dominion was changing votes, we have paper ballots that we can hand-count afterwards,” Davis said. “I’m fearful that this movement is going to have fewer and fewer people voting. I don’t want that. I want everybody voting. Nobody in the world should feel uncomfortable about the vote this fall.”

https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/commissioners-issue-scathing-rebuke-to-conspiracy-theorists/article_7c3ccd18-14cd-11ec-a803-f3456313f9cf.html

Worrisome’ letter defending Tina Peters sent to Colorado county clerks Mailing comes amid escalation of conspiracists’ targeting of election officialsMultiple county clerks in Colorado recently received a letter that they found alarming because of its tone and due to the context of intensifying efforts by activists who say, despite the absence of evidence, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

The one-page letter, dated Aug. 27, is typed, and, at least for some of the recipients, a handwritten portion is added at the bottom.

“We the people of Colorado aren’t taking it anymore—You work for us!” reads the handwritten line at the bottom of the letter received at the office of Chaffee County Clerk and Recorder Lori Mitchell. “Chaffee County may be next!”

Mitchell told Newsline that the warning, in the context of the rest of the letter, might refer to a potential that her office, like the clerk’s office in Mesa County, could be investigated by the secretary of state.

“But it’s hard to know because, after all we’ve been through, it’s just worrisome,” Mitchell said.

Earlier in the summer, in response to mounting threats directed at Mitchell,she had bulletproof infrastructure installed in her Salida offices.

In recent days, at Mitchell’s request, agents with the Department of Homeland Security conducted a physical security assessment at the clerk’s office, where 10 people work, and she plans to make improvements based on the agents’ advice.

The typed section of the letter, which is identical in the versions viewed by Newsline, discusses Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s investigation into an election-system security breach in the office of Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters. Mesa County election-system hard drive images were copied and released to conspiracy theorists with alleged participation by Peters. Staff from Griswold’s office visited the clerk’s office last month to investigate the breach, and the FBI and Mesa County district attorney are conducting a related criminal investigation.

The letter refers to the visit as “raids,” and it defends Peters, saying she did nothing wrong. Griswold is using a “‘Gestapo Standard’ of election intimidation” on behalf of a “tyrannical, weaponized government,” it says.

“Enough. There is no more time nor reason to tolerate or negotiate with tyrants,” the letter ends, adding a demand that Griswold resign.

Carly Koppes, the Republican clerk and recorder for Weld County and president of the Colorado County Clerks Association, also received a version of the letter.The handwritten portion of Koppes’ letter says “We the people” don’t want voting machines touched or loaded with new software, and it ends, “You may be next!”

Koppes said the meaning of that line is ambiguous, but taken with other threats to her office since the November election it’s notable.

“Some of my colleagues have received much worse than I have,” Koppes said.

Koppes, who was born and raised in Weld County, began working in the clerk and recorder’s office in 2004. Elections in her experience didn’t used to be so confrontational. “In my 17 years I have never seen anything like this,” she said.

Some of the letters appear to be signed by “Katherine Hawkins” and feature a similar style of cursive handwriting. Other clerks who reportedly received a version of the letter include those in Park and Baca counties. Colorado County Clerks Association spokesperson Michele Ames said that to her knowledge “a majority of the clerks in the state” received a version of the letter.

Its distribution appears to be part of a strategy by election conspiracists that involves “ramping up their efforts to pressure clerks,” Ames said.

https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/09/05/letter-tina-peters-colorado-county-clerks-election/

CONTINUED

I have no doubt it will escalate.

– Chaffee County Clerk Lori Mitchell

Since he lost the election to President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump has claimed without evidence that the election was fraudulent. Some activists in Colorado, such as those associated with U.S. Election Integrity Plan, have sought to prove that election systems in Colorado are vulnerable to tampering and fraud, though their claims amount mainly to innuendo, and the most serious actual breach is the one allegedly committed with the help of the Republican Peters. USEIP volunteers have reportedly gone door-to-door in multiple counties asking individual voters to verify their participation in the election. Election-fraud activists have pressured Colorado county clerks to conduct audits of the election.

Clerks expect such pressure to worsen as the next statewide election, on Nov. 2, approaches.

“I have no doubt it will escalate,” Mitchell said. “Clerks are trying to stay positive, check in with each other, offer support when they can.”

Mitchell has worked in the clerk’s office since 2011 and has been clerk since 2014. Like Knoppes, she said she has “absolutely not” seen anything like the recent attacks on elections officials before.

“It just takes a toll on you, because you’re worried about your staff,” she said. “You’re just worried about them feeling safe at work and you’re worried about everybody’s safety for real.”

A lot of her staff are longtime members of the community, she said.

“We’re just trying to do our jobs, our professional jobs, and help people interact with their government, and it’s like we’re just turned into the enemy all of a sudden,” she said.

Mitchell is up for reelection next year. Asked how she feels about remaining in office after the threats she’s experienced, she said, “I’m going to fight like hell and I’m going to win again … I have a job to do and I’m going to do it, and I’m going to run the best campaign I can, and I’m going to win.”

>>14582561

>>14582533 This is part twofold Colorado voting article, anon was getting floods and post already exists, sorry

>>14582561

>>14582533 This is part two of Colorado voting article, anon was getting floods and post already exists, sorry

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