Commissioners: Group needs to show data of election fraud
Despite a successful hand count of ballots from the 2021 election, some Mesa County residents still were concerned not so much with that count, but with who voted in the last election.
Without providing any evidence, some residents told the Mesa County Board of Commissioners that it appears some ballots were cast either by people who are not registered voters, or that some voters’ ballots were not counted in that election.
Others said that it’s all fine that the 2021 election was verified with a hand count that was completed within days, but said it only shows that a hand count can be done all the time, and tabulation machines should no longer be used. They also asked if the same could be done for the 2020 election.
The commissioners said they have tried to take as many proactive steps as possible to show voters that elections are conducted fairly in the county, including the 2020 election.
“For the record, in January, I did approach (Mesa County Clerk) Tina Peters and asked her to do a full audit and hand count of the 2020 election, and she refused,” said Commissioner Cody Davis.
“I pushed her hard and I even said we’d fund it, so to say we haven’t tried to do this, we have,” Davis said. “I requested that of Tina at the beginning of the year because I wanted to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the 2020 election was true.”
Mesa County Treasurer Sheila Reiner, who along with former Secretary of State Wayne Williams, was tapped to oversee the fall election after Peters and her deputy were barred from running them, said the county has everything it needs to audit the 2020 election.
“We have the records, we have the electronic database, we have everything we need to resurrect the 2020 general election if we want to do that, but it will be a big project,” Reiner told the commissioners. “If that’s something you want to entertain, it’s possible.”
The commissioners also said that a group that claims to have evidence of irregularities in the 2020 election needs to report its findings so the county can make any needed corrections.
A group known as the U.S. Election Integrity Plan claims to have canvassed voters on the 2020 election and found numerous examples of fraud or irregularities. But despite promising to report its findings for months, the group has yet to do so.
“I’ve been told several times that this data exists and there’s rampant fraud out there, but to this date zero data has been presented to us. Zero,” Davis said. “It’s one thing to make a claim, it’s another thing to present us with the data so that we can confirm that. We’ve said it multiple times, please present this data to us because it has not in any way, shape or form been presented to us. Not one person has given us one shred of data with this. It’s just a claim that’s being made.”
Reiner said one of the major ways to ensure that voter registration rolls are accurate and up to date is to get accurate and up-to-date information from voters themselves.
“That kind of data is essential … so the elections division can investigate it and correct the rolls,” Reiner said. “Under Colorado law, if a ballot continues to be delivered and is not returned to our office as not deliverable, we won’t know that person left unless the person takes some action to update their address. There is some responsibility on the citizens to keep our voter rolls clean.”
Commissioner Janet Rowland said Peters and Garfield County resident Sherronna Bishop, a conspiracy theorist who along with Peters and two others is being investigated by the FBI for possible wire fraud in relation to election equipment, provided the county in April a list of possible irregularities from the group’s initial canvassing.
“In every single case, whatever the voter said they had done — vote or not vote — is what our records showed,” Rowland said. “Where they (Bishop and Peters) got the information that was incorrect, I don’t know, but our records reflected what the voters said every single time. The (elections) staff told Tina this multiple times, and all the staff were told back was, ‘You cannot talk to Sherronna Bishop unless I, Tina, am present with you.’ ”
