By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
During my run as the GOP Nominee for Governor in 2022, I talked to voters across
Colorado that didn’t trust our elections. 25% of Republicans didn’t vote. After the race, I
decided to dig in and see if I could find a way to restore trust for voters in the process.
A month ago, I held a press conference to announce the results of that two-year
investigation backed by a dedicated team of researchers. We reported that we found
shocking gaps in our so-called “gold standard” elections. Watch it here.
Over 20 well-coordinated media pieces against me were published after that, with
various politicians and their paid “experts” spouting prepared statements and similar
talking points, calling me a conspiracy theorist and “reckless.”
They hoped their coordinated efforts would bury the truth, instead it backfired and
exposed much more. In fact, it exposed how “reckless” some leaders of our elections
have been in Colorado.
And, it’s not just Jena Griswold’s leak of 600 passwords, it’s the gaslighting that goes
with it. It’s time to tell Colorado voters the truth about our elections so we can fix what’s
broken and trust our vote again.
Since our press conference last month, we’ve learned the following:
- Remote access to our voting system exists in 12 counties. After being told
by our Secretary of State all capabilities were stripped out in the Trusted Build
process, the head of the Clerk’s Association admitted that’s false. Read more
here. - Over 600 BIOS passwords were leaked: Critical to our voting systems, passwords were posted on the Secretary of State’s web site for months, and not taken down until it was leaked to the public. Jena Griswold knew for days beforetaking them down and I question if she would have released the information to the public or even the County Clerks if it had not been exposed by a citizen. Read more here.
- Fraudulent ballots were allowed through: Signature verification issues in Mesa County caused 12 fraudulent ballots to be accepted, 3 of which made it into the system as votes and can’t be undone. Read more here and here and here.
- There are troubling problems with ballot scanners in three counties: Multiple Colorado counties, including two in Southern Colorado, experienced issues with ballots not scanning. Read more here.
- Voters are registered in multiple states: 18% of active voters on Colorado’s voters roll with mail addresses in Kansas were also registered to vote in Kansas. 22% active of active voters on Colorado’s voters roll with mail addresses in NewMexico were also registered to vote in New Mexico.
- Our voter rolls contain questionable voters: United Sovereign Americans (USA) claims to have discovered 100,693 improperly counted votes fromColorado’s 2022 election and have filed a lawsuit. Read more here.
We already knew from our analysis in Douglas County over the last two years:
- 400+ Drop boxes across Colorado are not secure: Video cameras are low
quality and don’t meet specification requirements, they are often pointed in the
wrong direction and the footage is not monitored or reviewed. Read more here. - 30,000 undeliverable ballots were unaccounted for in 2022: The Colorado Institute for Fair Election audited Undeliverable ballots in the 2022 Election. In 9 counties, the invoice records are significantly different than the official undeliverable count with over 18,000 undeliverable ballots have no matching USPS invoice record and in 3 counties, over 12,000 undeliverable ballots were invoiced but the county has no record of receiving them. Read more here.
- The Secretary of State wants to keep dead voters on the rolls: When the Public Interest Legal Foundation asked to see ERIC’s reports of dead people possibly voting in Colorado, Griswold refused to release them. Friday, November 1, is her deadline to do so. Read more here.
And to top it off, we learned that election officials “audit” themselves.
If you are concerned, you should be (but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t VOTE – you
MUST!). Citizens should demand comprehensive audits of the voting system, the
signature verification process, the management of voting rolls, and overall security
practices, including reports generated after every election as to the accuracy of of our
election. They should be done by external certified forensic experts based on an audit
standard and results, all results, should be made public. Sunshine solves a lot.
At the end of the day, it is up to you, the citizens of Colorado to decide what to believe.
My mission is to provide accurate, well-researched information so you can hold your
government accountable. I am on a mission to get you the truth and hold the
government accountable. As you will find, like I found, they want to keep Coloradans in
the dark. It’s up to us to shine the light on these problems and pressure our leaders to
change, or perhaps resign. I want to trust that my vote matters, don’t you?
So, what’s a voter to do with this unsettling information?
- Talk to your County Clerk’s office and ask questions, and don’t accept fluffy
talking points. - Talk to your County Commissioners. They have a lot of influence and hire/manage the County Attorney who is critical in the election process.
- Call the Governor’s and Secretary of State’s offices and demand resignations for Jena Griswold and Chris Beall, her Deputy Secretary of State,
- Volunteer to be an Election Judge, Poll Watcher, or for our Citizen Drop Box Observer training at www.coloradodropbox.com
- Demand audits of the voting machines, election equipment, the signature verification process and the voter rolls by external certified forensic experts based on an industry audit standard.
- Let’s also get to work on suggestions for legislation and/or a potential ballot initiative in 2026 to address these issues long term.
Follow me on X @heidiganahl to stay up to date as this evolves.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.