By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice
A nationally recognized computer scientist will present what he says is direct evidence of vote data manipulation in Arapahoe County’s 2020 election – and altered ballot records in a newly released 2025 file – at a May 27 press conference at the Colorado State Capitol.
Dr. Walter Daugherity, a Harvard-trained expert in computer science and election auditing, is set to speak at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday on the west steps of the Capitol. According to a press release circulated Wednesday, Daugherity will walk the public through four exhibits that show what he describes as “a manipulated cast vote record” and evidence that votes were changed at the ballot level.
The core claim: Two cast vote records, one election
Cast vote records (CVRs) are digital spreadsheets that show how a tabulation system interpreted each individual ballot. There are 354,247 ballots in Arapahoe County’s 2020 election – and the CVR is expected to show that many lines of ballot data. But according to Daugherity, there are now two public versions of that file: one released shortly after the election in 2020, and one published on the county website in April 2025.
Both claim to reflect the same election. But they don’t match.
In fact, Daugherity says, three out of five ballot records he analyzed were changed in the 2025 version – a finding that could point to illegal tampering of an election record.
A statistical red flag
Exhibit 1: Original 2020 CVR from Arapahoe County showing identical Prop B voting behavior across parties
The original CVR from 2020 raised eyebrows for a different reason. In Exhibit 1, Daugherity shows that Trump and Biden voters in Arapahoe County voted in near-perfect sync on Proposition B, the Gallagher Amendment repeal. That kind of behavior, he says, is a statistical impossibility – “like flipping a coin 3,500 times and getting heads every time.”
Exhibit 2: El Paso County’s 2020 CVR shows distinct partisan behavior on Proposition B—Trump and Biden voters diverged significantly in their votes.
By contrast, Exhibit 2 presents data from El Paso County’s 2020 CVR, where voting on Proposition B followed more expected partisan lines: about 65% of Trump voters voted NO, while only about 33% of Biden voters did.
Then the CVR changed
Exhibit 3: The revised 2025 CVR from Arapahoe County shows voting behavior that mirrors El Paso’s, in contrast to the original.
In April 2025, Arapahoe County posted a new version of the 2020 CVR. Exhibit 3 shows the shift: suddenly, the data aligns more closely with El Paso County’s pattern. Trump and Biden voters no longer appear to vote in lockstep. Instead, the data now reflects a more expected partisan divide.
According to the press release, this revision was not a matter of correcting typos or updating formatting. It changed actual votes.
Ballot-by-ballot proof
Exhibit 4: A line-by-line comparison of five ballots from the original and revised CVRs. In three cases, votes were changed on Proposition B or Amendment C.
Exhibit 4 is perhaps the most damning. It displays a side-by-side comparison of five individual ballots between the original and revised CVRs. In three of the five examples, the recorded votes were different.
Votes were altered on ballot measures including Proposition B and Amendment C. According to Daugherity and the release organizers, this is not just a statistical anomaly – it’s potential evidence of a crime.
“Altering a vote on a ballot record is a crime,” the release states.
Questions for Tuesday
Dr. Daugherity is expected to walk through all four exhibits and take questions at the Capitol on Tuesday. He may also discuss whether the changes could have been made manually or through automated scripting, and what other counties might show if similar comparisons were made.