{"id":49888,"date":"2020-12-14T20:16:57","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T03:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-republicans-want-to-examine-voting-system\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:49:13","slug":"colorado-republicans-want-to-examine-voting-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-republicans-want-to-examine-voting-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Republicans want to examine voting system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Voting
Voting booths at Hiawatha Davis Jr. Recreation Center in Denver\u2019s Park Hill neighborhood.<\/span>The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Republicans in the legislature will hold an investigative hearing on the integrity of Colorado\u2019s election processes and systems Tuesday despite a lack of evidence of widespread fraud that would have overturned any of the state\u2019s 2020 results.<\/p>\n

The meeting is also happening despite the fact that Colorado GOP Chairman Ken Buck has been working with Republican county clerks to dispel any notion of mass election wrongdoing in the state and to reassure conservatives that their votes were not tampered with.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur votes are not being manipulated,\u201d Buck, who is also a U.S. representative from Windsor, said Dec. 2 during a state Republican Party event. \u201cTo have some conspiracy theory in Colorado<\/a> that something has been manipulated and the Russians or the Iranians or some group \u2013 George Soros or somebody else \u2013 is doing something to our system, I am convinced that\u2019s not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buck added: \u201cIt is so important that people have confidence in their election, that people understand that \u2013 I can\u2019t speak for other states \u2013 in Colorado we are doing it the right way and we have confidence in our election results.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rep.
Rep. Lori Saine,<br><br>R-Firestone<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rep. Lori Saine, a Firestone Republican and chair of the Legislative Audit Committee, isn\u2019t convinced. She called for Tuesday\u2019s hearing and said it\u2019s incumbent upon state lawmakers to provide a check on the state\u2019s election processes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a hearing where all Coloradans can dial in and see what\u2019s going on, they can see the testimony.<\/a> And they can also make a decision for themselves,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean, one of the things that people are emailing me about, calling me about, is their concern with all these other states joining lawsuits. You\u2019ve got certain states with election integrity issues. But did it happen here in Colorado? It\u2019s really kind of on us to help to help answer that question. Did it happen here? Did we have widespread fraud?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear what Saine thinks went wrong in Colorado\u2019s elections this year. Asked repeatedly for evidence of malfeasance, she didn\u2019t point to any. Confronted with the fact that there has been no indication of widespread fraud that would have changed results in Colorado, she said that was only an assumption.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to keep an open mind in the hearing,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I think we\u2019re all going to learn something. Maybe we will find some good news. But I think we will find some weaknesses, too, that we can address.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saine argues that any fraud \u2013 even if it doesn\u2019t rise to the point of changing election results \u2013 undermines voter confidence and should be examined by state lawmakers.<\/p>\n

The hearing Tuesday will happen against the backdrop of President Donald Trump\u2019s floundering national effort to overturn the 2020 election results in several states and his baseless claims there was widespread voter fraud. Buck, despite his assurances about Colorado\u2019s election systems, signed onto a U.S. Supreme Court brief supporting a now-failed effort by Texas to reverse the election\u2019s outcome in Trump\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

Democrats hold complete control of the lawmaking process in Colorado, but the bipartisan Legislative Audit Committee is an exception. The leadership alternates between the two major parties, and right now, Republicans are in control and so have the power to call a hearing, as Saine has done.<\/p>\n

Democrats will participate in the hearing on Tuesday, even though they say it is unnecessary. Democratic House Speaker KC Becker of Boulder rejected a Republican request for a special legislative committee on the topic of election integrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that one of my biggest concerns is that the Legislative Audit Committee has always been a very bipartisan committee and we operate best under bipartisan terms,\u201d said Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City, who is vice chair of the panel. \u201cThis feels like a very partisan use of the audit committee and audit committee staff at a time when taxpayer dollars should not be spent on debunking already debunked myths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s elections systems are considered the national gold standard, Michaelson Jenet said, and that\u2019s why the hearing is unnecessary. She will call witnesses to the hearing, but she said she is waiting to see who Republicans summon to the Capitol before announcing who she has invited.<\/p>\n

Saine, who is term limited and won\u2019t be returning to the Capitol in January, said her witness list would be released by the end of last week. That never happened. Saine, who in November was elected to be a Weld County commissioner, cited security concerns for why the list was never made public.<\/p>\n

The Legislative Audit Committee doesn\u2019t have subpoena power, so witnesses will show up \u2013 or not \u2013 of their own volition.<\/p>\n

\"People
People vote by dropping off their ballots in the final day before Election Day in Denver on Nov. 2.<\/span>Kevin Mohatt\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI would hope they do come,\u201d Saine said. \u201cIf folks are invited and don\u2019t show, that could suggest that \u2013 with all the suspicions out there \u2013 they have something to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Hugh McKean, the incoming House Republican leader, did not respond to a message seeking comment about the hearing. He did not sign onto a letter with other House Republicans announcing the hearing. The House Republican caucus has been split between hard-line conservatives and those more willing to work across the aisle.<\/p>\n

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, has already certified the state\u2019s 2020 election results. A risk-limiting audit aimed at affirming Colorado\u2019s vote count was completed and didn\u2019t show any abnormalities. There have been no reports of fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cColoradans made their voices heard, setting the highest record number of voters participating in any election held in state history,\u201d Griswold said in a written statement. \u201cWe are tremendously proud of this success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, journalist-owned news outlet exploring issues of statewide interest. Sign up for a newsletter and read more at coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Legislative Audit Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[394,233,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87657,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49888\/revisions\/87657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49888"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}