Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Rocky Mountain Voice

Colorado’s primary audit is underway. Here’s what it checks—and what it doesn’t
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s primary audit is underway. Here’s what it checks—and what it doesn’t

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Before Colorado's June 30 primary results become official, counties across Colorado must complete one of the final steps required by state election law: a post-election risk-limiting audit. Mesa County completed its audit Tuesday. "Mesa pulled 115 with zero discrepancies," Mesa County Clerk Bobbie Gross told RMV. The audit compares randomly selected paper ballot cards with how the voting system recorded the votes on them. It does not review every part of the election. What the audit checks Colorado law requires a risk-limiting audit after every primary, general, coordinated, recall and congressional vacancy election. State law describes it as a statistical audit intended to reduce the risk of certifying an incorrect election outc...
Read More
Polis’s auto insurance roadmap is working. It’s also avoiding the hard part.
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Polis’s auto insurance roadmap is working. It’s also avoiding the hard part.

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Last November, Governor Jared Polis stood before cameras and announced a Roadmap to Reduce Auto Insurance Premiums. Colorado had the fifth-highest auto insurance rates in the nation. His administration had a plan. Eight months later, the state has hit most of its targets — and Colorado is still fifth. Polis built the roadmap around enforcement, education and infrastructure — plus legislation he had already signed. What it doesn't do is ask the legislature for anything new. There would be a public dashboard so Coloradans could watch it happen. Most targets were met. The ranking hasn't moved. What the roadmap doesn't address is a separate question, one that insurance industry analysts say explains why Colorado pays more ...
Read More
The Tina Peters trial became a fight over whether the system could withstand public inspection.
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

The Tina Peters trial became a fight over whether the system could withstand public inspection.

By Joe Oltmann | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The American people have been told, over and over, to trust institutions that have not earned that trust. Not Republican institutions. Not Democratic institutions. Not federal agencies. Not state bureaucracies. Not corporate vendors. Not partisan prosecutors. Not judges who hide behind procedure while the public asks basic questions. Not media outlets that decide in advance who the villain is and then write every story backward from that conclusion. That is the frame through which the Tina Peters case should be understood. The establishment version says Tina Peters is an “election denier” who let an unauthorized person access Mesa County, Colorado election equipment. That is the sanitized institutional story. The people’s...
Read More
Colorado’s dirty voter roll: The curious case of Apartment A503
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s dirty voter roll: The curious case of Apartment A503

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Questions about who belongs on Colorado's voter rolls extend beyond duplicate registrations. In Part 6, Mike O'Donnell examines how citizenship verification works, why he believes outside review is limited and how one Aurora apartment address became the most unusual pattern he encountered while reviewing Colorado's public voter roll. Noncitizen Registrants The very first question on the Colorado Voter Registration Form asks whether an application is a U.S. citizen or not. The answer to this first question is required, although if someone “forgets” to answer it, then because they also sign the declaration at the bottom of page 1, they are nonetheless presumed to be a U.S. citizen. An AI...
Read More
Lorena García’s nonprofit took $6.6 million in state money while its lobbyist backed bills she sponsored
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Lorena García’s nonprofit took $6.6 million in state money while its lobbyist backed bills she sponsored

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Before Lorena García was a Colorado state representative, the organization she runs had collected about $13,000 from the state of Colorado in the five years before she filled the vacancy, according to state payment records. That changed when she joined the legislature. The Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition (CSPC) was founded in 1980 by Richard Garcia, Lorena García’s father, who ran it as executive director through 2017, according to the organization’s IRS filings. Lorena García took over as executive director in 2018. Since García was appointed to the Colorado House in January 2023, the nonprofit she leads has received $6.64 million in state payments. That is 99.8 percent of every dollar state payment records sho...
Read More
The Sincerity Weapon: Jack Be Nimble
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Devotional, Top Stories

The Sincerity Weapon: Jack Be Nimble

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Jack be nimble. Jack be quick. Jack jump over the candlestick. As children, we rarely stop to think about what this little rhyme means. We simply picture a boy leaping over a candlestick with speed, courage, and just enough daring to make us smile. Maybe that's why it has endured for generations. Every child dreams of jumping over something exciting. I know I did. Growing up in Southern California during Evel Knievel's heyday was nothing short of inspiring. Every bicycle became a motorcycle, every curb became a canyon, and every homemade plywood ramp became another opportunity to attempt the impossible. Like millions of other boys, I dreamed of flying through the air, sticking the landing, and hearing the applause. Evel was...
Read More
Colorado’s dirty voter roll: When one registration becomes two
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s dirty voter roll: When one registration becomes two

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice A voter registration is intended to identify one eligible voter. In Part 5, Mike O'Donnell shares examples he flagged during a manual review of more than 412,000 Colorado voter records that he says appear to show duplicate registrations created by small differences in names and other identifying information. Duplicated Voter Registrations The vast number of new registrants added to the Colorado voter roll each year are added automatically. The Department of Revenue is required to electronically report information on “each unregistered elector or person eligible to preregister who applies for the issuance, renewal, or correction of a Colorado driver's license or identification card and who provides documentation of ...
Read More
Colorado immediately assessed Trump’s election order. USPS defended its proposal. A court blocked key parts.
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado immediately assessed Trump’s election order. USPS defended its proposal. A court blocked key parts.

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado election officials said they diverted staff to evaluate President Trump's executive order while 2026 preparations were already underway. USPS said the proposal formalizes election-mail practices it has recommended for years. The dispute has now moved to the appeals courts. Colorado election officials told a federal court they began evaluating changes to the state's election systems almost immediately after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to overhaul parts of federal election administration.  In sworn filings, they said the order required them to divert staff time to analyze how new federal citizenship verification and ballot-mail procedures would interact with the state's syste...
Read More
Colorado’s dirty voter roll: Following the ballot
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s dirty voter roll: Following the ballot

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice  Colorado relies on the U.S. Postal Service to deliver millions of ballots, but the mail carrier isn't always the last person to handle them. In Part 4, Mike O'Donnell examines Colorado's chain of custody—from group homes and shelters to commercial mail locations, drop boxes and ballot harvesting. Ballot Chain of Custody Because Colorado is a vote-by-mail state, the U.S. Postal Service, as a (mostly) trusted agency of the federal government, is the primary delivery mechanism used to ensure that ballots are delivered to all active status registrants.  Colorado ballots are, for the most part, delivered by U.S. Postal Service workers directly into the home mailboxes or secure mail boxes at local post offi...
Read More