October 30, 2017 10:11 AM UTC

Hubby Takes Fall Over Northglenn GOTV Suppression Signage

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• by: Colorado Pols

Following up a story you heard about first here at Colorado Pols, 9NEWS’ Marshall Zelinger gets the full scoop on bizarre election-related signage that popped up in the north Denver suburb of Northglenn last week–signs that instructed voters to “CALL POLICE” if someone knocks on your door asking about your ballot. You know, that thing that happens routinely in just about every contested election.

As we surmised from the information and pics we received, 9NEWS confirmed that the signs in question do indeed trace back to one Wayne Dodge, owner of Dodge Sign Company in Northglenn and husband of mayoral candidate Carol Dodge.

Who are both backpedaling as hard as they can:

“I talked to Wayne, and I said, ‘You don’t know anything about this sign correct?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, no, I did the signs.’ And I thought, ‘Yeah, it was a big issue.’ He and I fought about it. I said, ‘What are you doing to me, I’m running in an election,'” said Carol Dodge. “Total blind side, and believe me, we’ve talked, so it’s an issue…”

He said the reason he printed the signs is that a few of his senior-aged friends complained to him about recent visits by canvassers at their doors…

“I should have had it, ‘if you feel intimidated while they’re asking about your vote and stuff,'” said Wayne Dodge.

“I don’t feel bad about what I did, even though I know I could have done something different, but I felt bad that I messed with her election and I can never take that back.”

So if we’re to believe the Dodges, which is itself amusing wordplay, Wayne Dodge created these ridiculous signs that were obviously meant to disrupt ordinary and perfectly legal GOTV canvassing efforts, and distributed them from the back of a truck along with signs for his wife’s campaign for mayor–all without Carol Dodge’s knowledge.

Yeah, we know. Fat chance. Especially after Carol Dodge kind-of sort-of defended it:

“It’s voter education. He’s wrong, he shouldn’t have put up such a dumb sign. I get that part of it,” said Carol Dodge. “This sign is voter awareness. Don’t twist it to say it’s voter suppression. It is not.”

Of course, the only “awareness” this sign is promoting is paranoia. And insofar as this sign is encouraging voters to take wildly unreasonable action in response to perfectly reasonable get-out-the-vote activity, it most certainly can be considered vote suppression–persuading individual voters to act stupidly and opt themselves out of the normal and legal process. It is not “voter education,” not “voter awareness,” it’s just bullshit.

And there is no reason to excuse Carol Dodge from responsibility. It’s inexcusable. Them’s the breaks.

One more small below-the-fold point: after we posted our original story, we received a nastygram from someone named Andrew Schultz, who identifies himself as general manager of Wayne Dodge’s Dodge Sign Company:

As the General Manager of Dodge Sign Co. I am requesting you cease and desist using Dodge Sign Co. in any of your political goings on or statements. I will personally verify Dodge Sign Co. did not produce the signs mentioned here; any loss of business because of posts like this will be dealt with after this election season is over. Legal is not our business, but I am sure the intent of your statement is more than malicious and we will be documenting any statements with mention of Dodge Sign Co., past and future.

In the 9NEWS story, this detail was indeed addressed:

Wayne Dodge, who owns a sign company, actually went to a competitor to have five-yard signs made. [Pols emphasis] He said he couldn’t do it as quickly and didn’t have the right equipment.

To be clear, we didn’t make any claims in our post about who printed the signs–only that they appeared to be in Wayne Dodge’s possession along with Carol Dodge for Mayor signs in the back of Wayne Dodge’s truck, and that Wayne Dodge is the owner of Dodge Sign Company.  We certainly had no way of knowing that Dodge Sign Company is such a crappy sign-making company that they don’t even have the equipment to produce the signs in question, but it’s good to know this in case we or anyone we know might make the mistake of wanting to do business with them.

We don’t want to be the ones to tell you that you’re an idiot, Andrew, or that your boss is an idiot–but either way, we’re not the ones you should sue because your boss is an idiot.