Voter integrity
Dear Editor:
In the Herald Times article, “Your Constitutional Rights as a Voter: Special to the Herald Times” (Sept. 17, 2021), the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office inferred that the voter verification survey being taken throughout Rio Blanco County (RBC) violates registered voters’ rights: in fact, the survey is being taken to protect registered voters’ rights.
By law the Colorado Secretary of State must verify voter registration records; however, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold failed to verify the voter records per the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) so Judicial Watch, Inc. filed a lawsuit–Judicial Watch et al. v. Jena Griswold, Colorado Secretary of State and State of Colorado (No. 1:20-cv-02992); the Court denied Colorado’s motion to dismiss the case, ruling that “…the individual plaintiffs have standing to sue based on the fact that ‘noncompliance with the NVRA undermines the individual plaintiffs’ confidence in the integrity of the electoral process and discourages their participation [in elections]’” (Judicial Watch Aug. 24, 2021).
With anomalies such as ballots mailed to deceased individuals, to unoccupied residences, and to residents who moved out of the state, and some Colorado counties showing registration rates exceeding 100%, Rangely’s grassroots group, Restore America: United (RAU), is verifying the integrity of Rio Blanco County’s (RBC) voter registration record.
Colorado Concerned Citizens trained RAU volunteers to ensure they met all legal and ethical standards to protect voter’s personal information including their voting choices. Then RAU trained Rangely and Meeker volunteers. The survey verifies the registered voter’s public information by asking them 1) if their name is correct; 2) if their address is correct; and 3) if they voted in 2020.
If a voter reports an anomaly, a witnessed affidavit (declaration of facts) is completed verifying the voter’s correct information.
When finished, RAU will send the results to the U. S. Election Integrity Project (USEIP) who will forward results from all the participating Colorado counties to Griswold’s office requesting anomalies be corrected.
This is the first of two RAU projects to establish voter integrity and truth in the RBC voting process. The second project is adopting a voter identification—hard ballot voting process.
Respectfully,
Susie Berardi
Member
Restore America: United
From a concerned citizen
Dear Editor:
I am writing today as a concerned citizen and taxpayer in Rio Blanco County.
Recently, a document was released in Mesa County regarding evidence that Colorado election laws were broken and voting systems compromised. This is a serious matter and once the file is read, you too ought to be concerned.
In a Constitutional Republic such as ours, one expects and demands that laws and statutes — once made and codified — ought to be followed. In our country today, many examples can be cited where laws seem to be mere obstacles to be ignored or used only when it suits the bureaucrat or politician.
To that end, the Mesa County document released appears to show (and I paraphrase from the Mesa County article) instances of lawbreaking that are alleged to have occurred on the part of Secretary of State Griswold; therefore, it clearly impacts Rio Blanco County:
Election data — required by law to be preserved for a specified period of time — was destroyed in Mesa County through the “trusted build” required by Griswold; thousands of records were eliminated.
The machines used to configure election systems in all Colorado counties were not legally certified or accredited by the State, yet they were used to “certify” the election outcomes by Griswold.
Griswold’s system — in conjunction with the vendor systems — was apparently configured to overwrite election data. These systems have been proven to have networking capability.
It appears that the deleted election records will make it impossible to have a proper forensic examination and audit in the future.
This is how it impacts Rio Blanco County:
This past July, I and a group of other concerned citizens became aware of the “trusted build” update scheduled for the voting machines in Rio Blanco County. As a result, we presented our concerns in a public forum to the County Commissioners of Rio Blanco County and the County Clerk. The Commissioners agreed that the County Clerk ought to postpone the delivery of this “trusted build.” As the governing body under State statute, the Commissioners wrote the Clerk a formal letter asking to postpone the build among other statements.
This request to postpone the build was ignored and the “trusted build” proceeded even though information was presented by professional sources — and agreed to by the County Commissioners — that the “build” was potentially damaging to election records in violation of State statute. It is likely that the Rio Blanco County Clerk was working based on orders from Griswold that the Clerk may have thought superseded the authority of the Commissioners.
If the allegations provided in Mesa County are fully substantiated, then Rio Blanco County along with the 63 other counties in Colorado have also been affected.
It should be our mutual expectation that there be a full investigation into this matter. If you’re interested, your concerns should be brought up with Mr. Jeff Cheney, District Attorney, Ninth District, 109 8th Street Suite 308, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601.
Don Davidson
Concerned Citizen
Rangely
Lessons learned from LDS mission
Dear Editor:
I’m Sember Leatham and I absolutely love meeting people and helping them! In January 2020, I left home for 18 months to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I lived in and met the wonderful people of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi! My teaching companions and I would teach anyone who wanted to know more about God and Jesus Christ. We answered questions like, “How can I know God is real and He loves me?” or “How can I improve my family relationships?”
I was able to help a lot of people as I dedicated all my time to reaching out to others. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic made things difficult because we now had to contact people solely online, we still saw many miracles and were still able to meet people. We were able to help a lot of people find peace in comfort, especially through the difficult times of the pandemic.
I loved serving in the South because everyone has such beautiful faith, they trust that there is a plan for them, and they feel so much love for God. I learned so much from them. That was definitely my favorite part of going on a mission. I learned so many lessons from those around me and great life skills like how to connect with people and work hard no matter the circumstance. Giving up my selfish desires at the most selfish part of my life was completely life changing. If you ask me, all young people should serve missions!
I love my mission and the people I met and worked with. It is an experience I will never forget.
Sember Leatham
Meeker
