Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Election Law

Justices To Decide If States Can Count Ballots After Election Day
The Federalist, Approved, National

Justices To Decide If States Can Count Ballots After Election Day

By Shawn Fleetwood | The Federalist Does Election Day actually mean Election Day? That’s the key issue the U.S. Supreme Court is going to consider when it holds oral arguments in a pivotal elections case next week. Known as Watson v. RNC, the legal dispute centers around a challenge to a Mississippi law allowing election officials to accept mail-in ballots up to five business days after Election Day so long as they are postmarked on or before the day of the contest. The issue of accepting late-arriving ballots has become a prominent issue in elections in recent years, with more than a dozen states permitting such a practice. In the case before SCOTUS, the justices will decide whether these state statutes violate existing f...
From bill to emergency order: The election fight moves beyond Congress
Rocky Mountain Voice, National, Top Stories

From bill to emergency order: The election fight moves beyond Congress

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Senate Republicans opened debate Tuesday on a bill they say will secure American elections. But inside that same fight, a second path is already taking shape—one that doesn’t run through Congress at all. While lawmakers argue over the SAVE America Act and whether it can survive a Senate filibuster, some election-integrity advocates are pushing something far more aggressive: a proposed emergency order that would allow a president to step in and change how federal elections are run. RMV obtained a copy of that proposal—and spoke with one of the men now advocating for it. What’s emerging is not just a policy disagreement. It’s a split in approach. Congress is trying to answer the question through legislation. Others are asking wh...
Colorado Must Reconsider the Imprisonment of Tina Peters
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Colorado Must Reconsider the Imprisonment of Tina Peters

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The case of former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters has become one of the most controversial legal and political episodes in modern Colorado election administration. But stripped of partisan rhetoric and competing narratives, the core issue before the public is far simpler—and far more troubling. Should an election official who believed she was preserving federally required election records spend years in prison for a disputed administrative decision? That question deserves serious reflection from every Coloradan, regardless of political affiliation. Public confidence in elections depends not only on accurate vote counts but on transparency in the systems that produce those results. When officials believ...
Why did nearly 500,000 Colorado voter records change after elections were certified?
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Why did nearly 500,000 Colorado voter records change after elections were certified?

By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado voters are constantly told to trust the system. Trust the process. Trust the machines. Trust the results. That’s where a new complaint under the federal Help America Vote Act enters the picture. https://twitter.com/Unite4Freedom/status/2029353098318364887 It names Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and focuses on something most voters probably never think about—what happens to election records after certification. The complaint says voter participation records were modified nearly half a million times across those three election cycles. There’s one number in the complaint that’s hard to miss—487,887. Michael Cahoon filed the complaint. It’s now being circulated by electi...
Grassroots-backed election amendments fall short as House advances HB26-1113
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Grassroots-backed election amendments fall short as House advances HB26-1113

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado lawmakers approved a sweeping update to the state’s election laws Tuesday after rejecting several amendments that would have added voter roll verification requirements and expanded cybersecurity standards for election infrastructure. The vote followed a second-reading debate on HB26-1113 the previous legislative day that centered on election security proposals and questions about the accuracy of Colorado’s voter rolls. Sponsors describe bill as routine election law update Rep. Jenny Willford (Adams County) rose first to present HB26-1113 to the chamber. “The house bill that you have in front of you today is a cleanup bill for elections and voting,” Willford said. She told colleagues Colorado’s electio...
Georgia Pollster Says 2020 Election Questions Were Never Fully Debunked
James Magazine Online, Approved, Commentary, National

Georgia Pollster Says 2020 Election Questions Were Never Fully Debunked

By Matt Towery | Commentary, James Magazine Online Since the 2020 presidential election I’ve consistently stated that, while the election may have experienced fraud, it would never be quantified. I still don’t believe it will. But if I am wrong, I will debunk my own statement. One reason I could have to correct myself is if the U.S. Department of Justice can get its hands on the state’s complete voters list that existed during the 2020 election, and can use its vast resources to see how many improper voters were on that list who voted. That would be telling. I know that issue has allegedly been debunked but data experts I consider the best in Georgia tell me the list was full of vot...
Do We Vote by Faith in Colorado? 
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, State, Top Stories

Do We Vote by Faith in Colorado? 

By Pamela Poll | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters has become a national figure in the battle for transparent elections in the USA. I believe her story holds important revelations. After the controversial 2020 election, around mid-year 2021, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold informed County Clerks that an update of their Dominion election software called the ‘Trusted Build’ would be installed on their election server. Preserving election data for at least 22 months is required by Federal law.  Clerk Peters arranged to have an outside person come in and create backups of the 2020 and 2021 election data. He made a second backup after the “Trusted Build” update was installed. The second backup confirmed that the 2020 ...
Colorado Democrats Revive Push to Ban State Lawmakers From Holding Multiple Elected Offices
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Democrats Revive Push to Ban State Lawmakers From Holding Multiple Elected Offices

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics Colorado lawmakers introduce hundreds of bills each year. Bills in Brief cuts through the noise by explaining which proposals matter, what’s at stake, and how decisions at the Capitol could affect everyday life across the state. A bill set for its first hearing later this month would bar Colorado lawmakers from holding more than one elected office at a time, reviving a recurring debate over conflicts of interest at the Capitol. Senate Bill 59 aims to address an issue that has surfaced at least six times in the last few years: lawmakers holding more than one elected office at a time. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Lisa Cutter, D-Littleton, and Rep. Mandy Lindsay, D-Aurora, is slated for a Feb. 24 hearing in the...
Defense reply raises stakes in Peters appeal, asks court to order immediate release
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Defense reply raises stakes in Peters appeal, asks court to order immediate release

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice With oral arguments just days away, Tina Peters’ legal team has raised the stakes in her appeal, filing a reply that no longer asks the Colorado Court of Appeals simply to weigh jurisdiction—but to declare it already lost and order her immediate release. The reply, filed on the Jan. 8 deadline, directly challenges the Attorney General’s position that the court retains authority over the case and frames Peters’ continued imprisonment as unconstitutional.  2026-01-08 A Peters Reply to Peoples ResponseDownload Her attorneys explicitly say the appellate court should find that it lacks jurisdiction and that Peters “must be released from custody forthwith.” The filing follows Peters’ Dec. 23 motion challenging the cou...
State fires back at Peters’ jurisdiction challenge, rejects pardon and supremacy claims
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

State fires back at Peters’ jurisdiction challenge, rejects pardon and supremacy claims

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Fifteen months after Tina Peters was taken into custody at sentencing, and as she marks a second New Year behind bars, Colorado’s Attorney General moved to answer her latest court filing, pushing back on a motion that asks the Court of Appeals to decide whether it even has jurisdiction to proceed. Filed Monday afternoon on Jan. 5, the 23-page brief from Senior Assistant Attorneys General Nora Passamaneck and Lisa K. Michaels argues that President Trump's pardon holds no sway over Peters' state convictions—and that the Colorado Court of Appeals should press forward with her appeal without missing a beat. This latest filing comes on the heels of Peters' Dec. 23 motion, which RMV covered in detail. Citing the pardon and Suprem...