Union activist and self-described Democratic Party hack Guy Santo is on a mission to protect the ballot. Last cycle he ran into a stone wall when trying to get information out of the Jeffco Clerk's office, so this year he is determined to run into that wall earlier and harder.
In the hopes that creating some buzz around his efforts will get someone to open a door, I spoke with him about his efforts so far.
Early this month he walked into the Jefferson County Election Commission office in Golden with a list of questions.
1) On what date will mail-in ballots be received, or start to be received, from the printer(s), if yet known; and/or may I be notified of the answer to this question when it is known?
2) Will ballots be received from the printer(s) on more than one date?
3) What are the names and addresses of the entities printing the ballots?
4) On what date will the absentee ballots start to be mailed out (or when will this information be available)?
5) Where will the returned ballots be stored each night before they are tabulated and when will tabulation commence?
6) What procedures, forms, or other requirements are necessary for a citizen like myself to observe tabulation of the mail-in ballots, as well as storage of pre and post tabulated ballots and daily master records?
7) Where will processed ballots be stored after tabulation?
8) What are Jefferson County's Office of Elections written procedures or instructions with regard to processing mail in ballots?
9) Specifically, what safegaurds exist to prevent tampering with the pre and post tabulation storage of the absentee ballots (seals, monitors, encoding, limited access, and integrity tests, etc.)?
The desk clerk directed him to send his questions to Susan Miller, Director of Elections.
His email to her from September 12th has not been answered.
I asked Santo if he wanted me to print her email and phone number and ask our community to help him get an answer, but he said that Ms. Miller probably can't be held responsible for not being able to field questions when Secretary of State, Gigi Dennis keeps changing the answers, and County Clerk Griffin has a conflicted interest in not having the questions answered before the ballots go out.
In the meantime, you can always ask Griffin, fgriffin@jeffco.us, how she intends to reconcile her signature and the certification of her office that appears on the ballot under C.R.S. 1-5-407(1) and these two laws:
C.R.S. 1-5-403(4)
"...the name of each person nominated shall be printed or written on the ballot in only one place."
C.R.S. 1-5-407(4)
"The designated election official shall not print, in connection with any name, any title or degree designating the business or profession of the candidate."
Her own website says her objective is to 'administer legal, ethical, and just elections for the citizens of Jefferson County'.
If she really wants to do that, she needs to step out of her official capacity so that citizen Bob Moser has a legal, just, and ethical race against her for County Treasurer.
And at a minimum, if she is going to fulfil her pledge to "provide a safe and legal atmosphere for the counting of the voted election ballots," she needs to provide information to the community about the procedures we are going to follow with our absentee ballots.
If you want to give it a shot to see who is watching over the absentee ballots in your County, get in touch with your elections offices, and share with us what you find out.
If we find out our ballots are unprotected, we can raise the alarm and get them covered.
Of course, the best answer to all of these questions is Ken Gordon. Let's put an end to the shenanigans of the Secretary of State's office and put in fair and ethical leadership. Do that, and we might be able to trust our elections again.
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