Colorado Republicans continue to vote against certifying elections

After Colorado’s election to local office last November, a state Republican Party official sent out a message to local board members saying they should vote against certifying the results.

“Nothing has changed since the 2020 election,” wrote Ron Hankswho heads the Colorado GOP’s election integrity unit. He called the state “a playground for election manipulators” and alleged “systemic fraud” without providing evidence.

Republicans in five local agencies subsequently voted against certifying their findings. Although other board members outweighed the “no” votes, Hanks — a former state legislator who later lost their bid for a seat in Congress — indicated their real purpose.

“The 2024 election will be an epic battle” Hanks wrote in his messageframing of city council and school board votes as a practice. “Our standing and credibility will be maintained if we reject corruption in the unchanged voting process — in Colorado and across our nation.”

Colorado is part of a nationwide trend of local Republican officials voting against certifying elections. Many of the same Republicans question the results of the 2020 presidential election, and experts see the votes as a test to discredit the results of this year’s presidential election.

“It’s kind of a strategy, if it’s a close election, to find a way to slow things down or provide a way to change election results,” said Rick Hasen, a political science professor at the University of California Los Angeles who leads ElectionLawBlog.org.

Democrat Kamala Harris counts Colorado’s 10 electoral votes to win the election. And down the ballot there are competitive races for the House of Representatives, which Republicans only narrowly control: a moderate Democrat is trying to win an open seat and there is also one close race for a time zone just north of Denver.

Colorado Republicans back votes with rejected talking points

Colorado’s elections are certified by three-member local canvass boards. The Democratic Party appoints one, the Republican Party appoints another, and the elected county clerk or recorder either serves themselves or appoints someone.

While the Democrat and county clerk have consistently outvoted the lone Republicans who voted against certification, there has nonetheless been a consistent drumbeat of Republicans on local canvass boards who voted against certifying results.

“The Republican Party of Colorado encourages members to do whatever they see fit given the information presented while serving on the board,” party chairman Dave Williams said in an email. “Election results are the main factor that drafting boards consider, but often there are members who cannot sign off on a potentially unreliable process.”

As of November 2023, five counties that include the urban areas of Boulder, Colorado Springs, Durango, Fort Collins, and Lakewood had all members voted against certifying results for places such as the city council and the school board. “No” votes came again in three counties below Presidential primaries in March and the June primary.

John Barrett, the Republican member of Boulder County’s labor council, told USA TODAY that his vote not to certify June’s local election results was not prompted by the Colorado Republican Party. He pointed to comments he made in July that raised questions about appropriate training to perform signature verification and the safety of drop boxes in Colorado mostly postal choices.

Barrett did not answer which candidate won the 2020 presidential election and said whether he votes to certify the presidential election in November will depend on the actions of the county clerk. He said the points he made about the election benefit “all voters, not any specific party.”

Candice Stutzriem, who voted against certifying results in the county that includes Colorado Springs in November, March and then June, wrote a report in December outlining her reasons for voting against certification. The county Republican Party posted it on their website.

“There is no way to prove that there is a single, verified, legal voter behind every vote,” Stutzriem asserted. She also made claims about the reliability of voting machines and ballot boxes—arguments that Trump supporters embrace, but choice watchdogs revealed.

Stutzriem and did not respond to multiple messages from USA TODAY seeking comment.

Stutzriem’s predecessor, Adriana Cuva, who voted against certification of city council and school board races in November 2021 and a primary in June 2022, told USA TODAY that her vote “was not prompted by the Republican Party.”

“As a board member, you are an independent board member,” Cuva said. “You should make up your own mind as to why you certify or not.”

County officials defend canvass process in Colorado

The justifications given for voting against certification involve general election administration rather than evidence of fraud that would alter an election result. Colorado county clerks — who are largely elected in partisan races — have been the ones on desks voting with Democrats to certify elections.

“I think the powers that be running the election denial movement have used the last three years as a testing ground for different techniques, different strategies to see what they can do to create confusion and cause chaos in the process,” said Matt Crane, the executive director. director of the Colorado County Clerks Association.

“I would call myself a conservative Republican,” Crane said. He called himself more conservative than former Republican President George W. Bush and said he agreed with “the original intent of the tea party.” He said the majority of county officials are also Republicans.

In Jefferson County, which Joe Biden won in 2020 by about 70,000 votes, local officials are fiercely pushing back against Nancy Pallozzi, the Republican representative on the local board who voted against certifying elections in November, March and June.

Pallozzi told USA TODAY that there were questions about ballot traceability and encryption of paper ballots, among other things. She did not answer who won the 2020 presidential election and only said that Biden is president.

“We have worked with Nancy many times and every election she sends us a letter with some kind of reason for not certifying the election, and none of it is ever coherent,” wrote Sarah McAfee, spokeswoman for the Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder. “It seems to be some sort of political statement.”

Local opposition could slow Electoral College certification

Across the country, it is common for local boards to certify, or audit, vote numbers in their areas. The write-off can be the responsibility of a county board or a county election board. Colorado has specialized job boards.

As of the 2020 election, there have been at least three dozen times across the country that local officials have delayed certification or voted against certifying the results of an election, for races ranging from the presidency to the school board, according to a review by USA TODAY. Many who cast those votes are still in office.

The states where this has happened are Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolinaand Pennsylvania — a combination of battlegrounds indicates that both candidates are running and blue indicates that Harris is expected to win.

Those fighting against certification rarely constitute a majority, meaning that the whales are usually still certified. On the handful of occasions that a majority of a board has voted “no” to confirm an election, enough members have reversed their “no” votes at a later date so that the election is confirmed. In Washoe County, Nevada, the board reversed course within a week.

While it hasn’t happened in the past, and likely won’t happen in the future, Hasen said a successful effort at the local level would prevent the state from being able to finalize the statewide results and send voters to the federal government, where the vice president must be able to count those electors on January 6 to certify the winner.

If no candidate gets a majority of the votes of the electorswould it trigger a 12^Th Change process where each state’s House members share one vote for president—effectively taking the presidential election out of the hands of the people. (The Senate would choose the vice president.)

“What people need to understand when we talk about not certifying is — it’s not an academic exercise,” said Hannah Fried, the executive director of the voter education group All Voting Is Local. “It’s your vote. It’s your vote that doesn’t count.”

When Trump allies sent certificate from fake electoral rolls to Washington, one potential outcome was to use the same 12^Th Amendment process to elect Trump. And Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, Congress said should have responded to these certificates by fighting it.

Colorado introduced safeguards

Crane said his organization is working to make sure county officials have everything they need heading into November. He is concerned that his members will continue to be targeted by “grifters and bad actors” who want them to vote against certifying elections.

“We’ve heard from some Republican board members that they don’t see a problem but they’ve been instructed that they just don’t have to sign off, and they’re worried about the backlash if they don’t,” Crane said of past elections.

Colorado’s Democratic-led legislature passed a law to allow the secretary of state to step in and certify an election in the event local boards fail to do so. And the current secretary, Democrat Jenna Griswold, has been aggressive in opposing efforts to undermine elections.

“I have the ability to oversee, to oversee a county’s elections, and if there is any indication of wrongdoing, I will not hesitate to make sure that there is good oversight of a county’s elections,” Griswold told USA TODAY in July.

National Efforts to Protect Voter Certification

Trump allies 2020 desired legislatures to choose who won the state’s electors instead of the electors and they pressured Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the election results, but Congress passed a law in 2022 which makes it clearer that the vice president cannot overturn an election result. And that one Supreme Court limited the power of state legislatures — the majority of which are run by Republicans — in federal elections.

In Nevada, after a local board refused to certify an election result — before changing its mind a week later — Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar asked a court to tell them they had to. The court declined to make a decision.

In the swing state of Georgia, a Fulton County official asked a court to explain that she does not need to certify elections. Three Trump-Endorsed Republicans on a five-person state board adopted several rules in August that could delay county certifications, including ordering an undefined “reasonable examination” of the findings by certifying officers.

“They’re a mess,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who in 2020 rejected Trump’s request to help him “find” votes, said in a statement about the state’s Board of Elections.

In 2022, state officials in North Carolina removed two local board members in the Charlotte area for refusing to sign the election results. That same year, New Mexico’s Secretary of State referred members of a county board for criminal investigation.

“Officers who do this are putting themselves in legal jeopardy, and I would think twice before doing that,” Fried said. “‘Is it worth it?’ is a question they should ask themselves.”

Contributor: Aysha Bagchi