{"id":25697,"date":"2024-09-15T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/vote-tally-certification-refusals-could-undermine-2024-election-experts-warn\/"},"modified":"2024-09-15T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T21:00:00","slug":"vote-tally-certification-refusals-could-undermine-2024-election-experts-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/vote-tally-certification-refusals-could-undermine-2024-election-experts-warn\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote tally certification refusals could undermine 2024 election, experts warn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Brian
Brian Hayward fills out his ballot on Tuesday at the La Plata County Clerk and Recorder\u2019s Office. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Two months ahead of the November election, Colorado officials are warning that refusal by local election canvass board members to certify results fuels misinformation and threatens voter trust in the entire election process.<\/p>\n

Republicans on three local canvass boards voted against certifying the June primary results, according to the secretary of state\u2019s office. It is a tiny percentage of the 64 three-member boards in each Colorado county, but it occurred in the context of a growing national movement by conservative activists to use the once mundane, administrative task of verifying vote tallies to protest shortcomings they see in how elections are run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is harm in allowing these protest votes and by consistently voting against certifying. These officials are sowing distrust. They\u2019re sowing doubt about the integrity of Colorado elections, and they are signaling that this sort of conduct is OK,\u201d Nikhel Sus, the deputy chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, told Colorado Newsline<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy getting on the ground level, at the county level, not only are you potentially disrupting the certification process, but you\u2019re also creating a foundation (for election deniers) to later dispute the results in Congress on Jan. 6, 2025,\u201d he said of the nationwide trend.<\/p>\n

The tactic is part of a larger national movement to erode trust in elections through various methods.<\/p>\n

CREW identified 35 election officials who voted against certifying results between 2020 and 2023, including three in Colorado: Nancy Pallozzi in Jefferson County, Candice Stutzriem in El Paso County and Theresa Watson in Boulder County. Pallozzi and Stutzriem also refused to certify the June primary, along with Watson\u2019s successor, John Barrett, in Boulder County.<\/p>\n

Local canvass boards are made up of the county clerk and appointees from the Democratic and Republican parties. Those parties must assign their canvass board members within 24 hours after Election Day. Their primary job is a numbers matching task, checking that there weren\u2019t more ballots counted than cast in an election and that there weren\u2019t more ballots cast than registered voters. A majority must vote to certify the results. For a long time, it was an uncontroversial duty that rarely made headlines or bubbled up to the general public\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n

Since 2020, however, more canvass board members across the country, often Republican, have refused to sign off on their county\u2019s election certification.<\/p>\n

The CREW report also identified officials who refused to certify election results in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to 2020, this had not been an issue. This only became an issue in connection with former President (Donald) Trump\u2019s election denial movement and stop-the-steal movement,\u201d Sus said.<\/p>\n

Trump falsely claimed that the 2020 election saw widespread voter fraud and was rigged in favor of President Joe Biden. His election denial resulted in a fake elector scheme in seven states, the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, and continued distrust on the right in the nation\u2019s election process. Trump is the party\u2019s presidential nominee this year and has refused to commit to accepting the election results.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Donald Trump refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, some extreme Republicans have refused to sign off on elections based solely on conspiracy theories and lies,\u201d Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said in a statement. \u201cI led a new law in 2022 to ensure these tactics cannot slow election administration in Colorado. I will not give election deniers any opportunity to undermine confidence in our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent or compromised have been debunked by elections officials, experts, media investigations, law enforcement, the courts and Trump\u2019s own campaign and administration officials.<\/p>\n

Members not \u2018following responsibilities\u2019 of canvass<\/div>\n

In 2023, former Colorado state lawmaker and unsuccessful Republican congressional candidate Ron Hanks used the official state GOP email to instruct canvass board members to vote against certification of the November 2023 municipal elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing has changed since the 2020 elections,\u201d he wrote, citing debunked criticisms of voting machines\u2019 security, messy voter rolls and other concerns over election integrity.<\/p>\n

Five Republicans subsequently voted against certifying results.<\/p>\n

The immediate risk in Colorado that these election officials could delay or derail the post-election process is low. In the instances where the Republican official refused to certify, the Democratic official and county clerk affirmed the canvass and sent it up to the secretary of state. Colorado also has a legal remedy, created in 2022 through a bill on election security measures, in which the secretary of state can certify the election if the county board refuses to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real risk is the message that it sends to the public,\u201d Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Molly Fitzpatrick, a Democrat, said. \u201cThe real risk is when you have folks that are responsible for helping conduct the election or certify the election who clearly aren\u2019t following their responsibilities. What does that say to the voter?\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s election code spells out the limited duties for canvass boards as certifying the official abstract of votes, reconciling the number of ballots cast with ballots counted and the number of ballots cast with the number of registered voters, and observing any necessary recounts.<\/p>\n

The Republican officials who refused to certify, however, cite concerns beyond that narrow scope. Pallozzi, for example, told Colorado Newsline her hesitancy in the last few elections stemmed from issues with the ballot chain of custody and how non-returned ballots were stored.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still encourage everyone to vote,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s our responsibility, those of us in the background, to watch the process and do what we can to help and make sure it gets done properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Fitzpatrick, who is president of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said county-level certification is not the right venue for process concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake those grievances to the Colorado Legislature,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is not what we\u2019re here to do. We\u2019re here to certify the election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stutzriem wrote in an April column in the Denver Gazette<\/em> that she did not vote to certify the March presidential primary because of statements made by Griswold after the 14th Amendment lawsuit by Colorado voters seeking to bar Trump from the ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that Trump was ineligible to be on the ballot because of the U.S. Constitution\u2019s insurrection clause, but the U.S. Supreme Court reversed that decision. Griswold publicly applauded the state supreme court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe secretary was tireless in her ambition to deny millions of voters in Colorado the opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice in the presidential primary,\u201d Stutzriem wrote. \u201cIt is impossible to identify, isolate and remove the full impact of Secretary of State Griswold\u2019s influence upon the March 5 presidential primary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stutzriem signed off on every individual component of the canvass that compared ballot numbers, but not the canvass as a whole. She noted on the actual certification that there were \u201cinsufficient grounds to certify this election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stutzriem and Barrett did not reply to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

El Paso County Clerk Steve Schleiker, a Republican, said the canvass process is not an avenue for a political statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re taking things out on Jena Griswold, who has zero authority over this process,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re bringing in a political aspect that has nothing to do with verifying numbers. You can have any feelings you want against state or local elected officials, but what you\u2019re certifying is that the numbers are correct.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick and Schleiker both said voters should feel confident in Colorado\u2019s voting system and comfortable asking their local county clerks about how ballots are processed, counted and audited.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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