{"id":36028,"date":"2023-01-30T11:03:06","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T18:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-clerks-hope-theyve-turned-a-corner-on-election-disinformation\/"},"modified":"2023-01-30T18:03:06","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T18:03:06","slug":"colorado-clerks-hope-theyve-turned-a-corner-on-election-disinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-clerks-hope-theyve-turned-a-corner-on-election-disinformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado clerks hope they\u2019ve turned a corner on election disinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A line at a mobile polling center in downtown Denver on Election Day on Nov. 8, 2022. (Kevin J. Beaty\/Denverite)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The last few years have been tough ones for the officials who run Colorado\u2019s elections; in the wake of the 2020 election they\u2019ve endured threats and hostility, had to push back against misinformation and disinformation, and been left always wondering \u2013 what comes next?<\/p>\n

This week, with the 2022 midterm election in the rearview, county clerks met for their winter conference in Colorado Springs and many said they\u2019re breathing a bit of a sigh of relief that election deniers lost momentum electorally and no outside disruptions impacted a smooth, fair and accurate election process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t feeling hopeful, but then after the election, I do feel like we\u2019ve made progress,\u201d Chaffee County Clerk Lori Mitchell, a Democrat from Salida, said about fighting disinformation. \u201cI thought it would happen at some point, but maybe not this quickly. I do feel that the temperature has gone down a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

One speaker joked that the clerks\u2019 conferences have been serving as \u201ctherapy sessions,\u201d and said he can\u2019t wait for them to become boring again.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things I often see in the last few years is an exhaustion from election officials,\u201d said David Becker, a national expert on election security<\/a> who spoke to the group about disinformation. \u201cThey\u2019re tired of having to say repeatedly that the sky is blue. And yet, they still do it every single day and they don\u2019t get rewarded for it. They\u2019re not changing minds in most cases, but they\u2019re still gonna stand up with integrity for a process that they know is secure.\u201d<\/p>\n

How to push back against conspiracies and win over skeptics? Transparency and trust-building<\/div>\n

But clerks said they do feel like they\u2019re making some inroads with conspiracy theorists by being very transparent and open about how the election process works<\/a> and trying to build trust<\/a>. And they were relieved to see candidates who attacked the election system lose in Colorado<\/a> and nationally<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think that more and more people are moving away from the stolen election lie, from that ridiculous narrative,\u201d said Matt Crane, the head of the Colorado County Clerks Association.<\/p>\n

Crane, a Republican, was Arapahoe County\u2019s clerk from 2013 to 2019.<\/p>\n

Election officials in Colorado continue to invite people with questions to come to their offices and see how the voting system works \u2013 and all the safeguards in place<\/a>. Many have invited those skeptical of elections to serve as election judges to see firsthand how secure voting really is. Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes, a Republican, said it\u2019s important for clerks to be diligent because the election denial movement is still strong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re definitely going to continue to keep going, and it really does just take one candidate to reignite it on a national level,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we have to continue to be as proactive as we possibly can, continue to be strong in our association and relationship building, and just continue to be out there in the public and getting our message out there about what actually happens in an election.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while the political side of the Stop the Steal movement didn\u2019t do well electorally in November, Becker warned there are still prominent figures feeding and sowing distrust, and keeping the grassroots energy active.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who have spread these lies are lining their pockets with small donations from people who are good Americans, who are sincerely disappointed in the outcome of the 2020 and perhaps the 2022 elections,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not insurrectionists, they\u2019re not bad Americans because they voted for people other than the winner. But that disappointment is being fed into anger. It\u2019s dividing us as a nation, and there are people who are profiting off that anger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tina Peters case has emphasized how important it is to educate clerks and be proactive<\/div>\n

The clerks\u2019 winter gathering is a time to share best practices and support each other, something that\u2019s especially important this year, as about a third of Colorado\u2019s clerks are new to their positions. Crane said it\u2019s important to educate clerks and get in front of any disinformation that might come their way, something that\u2019s been front and center with the high-profile case of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Peters is scheduled to go to trial in March over allegations that she compromised her county\u2019s voting machines<\/a> in the search for evidence of election fraud. Crane said her actions have left clerks horrified and mad \u2013 Koppes describes what happened with Peters as the \u201cbiggest gut punch of my life\u201d \u2013 but he said it taught the clerks even more about sticking together and the importance of helping educate their less experienced colleagues.<\/p>\n

Crane said it\u2019s like \u201cthere\u2019s much more of a foxhole mentality\u201d for those who\u2019ve run elections in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure that if you don\u2019t know something, it\u2019s OK to say, \u2018I don\u2019t know, but I\u2019ll get you the answer,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cSo people are much more diligent about that, doing research (and) sharing information that they have.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of that education effort, Crane invited experts to the conference to explain how the state maintains accurate voter rolls, in part by participating in a multistate effort known as ERIC, or the Electronic Registration Information Center.<\/p>\n

The nonprofit allows states to share death records, motor vehicle data and other information to look for voters who have moved or died. But it\u2019s been swept up in election conspiracy theories in recent years,<\/a> and some on the right have tried to pressure states to drop out. The head of the organization spoke at the conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we thought this was a great opportunity \u2013 both for our clerks that have been here a while, and for our new clerks \u2013 to kind of get a refresher,\u201d Crane said. \u2018OK, what is ERIC? What does it actually do? What does it not do? Where are these bad actors so obviously wrong about what happens with ERIC?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there\u2019s always a lot of work to do, to ensure the voting system is as secure \u2013 and accessible \u2013 as possible.<\/p>\n

For more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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