December 08, 2020 09:10 AM UTC

Ken Buck, Call Your Office: Dominion Lunacy Lands In Colorado

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

We wrote last Thursday about an attempt by Colorado GOP chairman Rep. Ken Buck to assure restless Republicans in Colorado that despite what they’re been hearing nonstop since Donald Trump lost the election over a month ago, the vote in Colorado was fair and accurate. Colorado’s election system has basically every characteristic that Trump has been baselessly attacking to contest the election results–above all “unsolicited” mail ballots sent to every active voter, so needless to say this rumor control session was a little what you’d call “off message.” Reportedly many Republican faithful came away less than pleased.

In particular, Republican county clerks were on hand to debunk allegations about Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, widely utilized by Colorado counties and a central component of the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that alleges millions of votes for Trump nationwide were “flipped” to his victorious opponent. Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes, a Republican who carried out the 2020 election in her red county on Dominion systems, said flat-out it’s not even possible to do what Trump’s supporters are alleging:

Koppes added that it’s not even technically possible for Dominion software to switch votes because the software does not designate which candidate is assigned a particular oval on the paper ballot.

Well folks, in case you thought that the leadership of the Colorado Republican Party along with GOP county clerks thoroughly debunking the prevalent conspiracy theories about Dominion would be enough to convince…well, even Republican elected officials apparently, you’d be wrong! As the Denver Post’s Saja Hindi reports, at least eight of Ken Buck’s falcons can no longer hear their falconer:

Colorado election officials — including Republican county clerks — have pointed to the state’s proven track record of election security that has served as a model for other states, and federal judges have dismissed allegations by President Donald Trump that the election was stolen from him.

But seven Colorado House Republicans and one representative-elect penned a letter Monday to outgoing House Speaker KC Becker calling for an audit of the Dominion Voting Systems software used by the state and creation of a special committee…

“Free and fair elections are foundational to keeping our Republic and voters must have confidence in the election system,” they wrote in the letter. “The committee through educational hearings and sworn witness testimony from experts can help uncover any fraud or weaknesses in Colorado systems to help restore faith in the election process.”

Led by outgoing House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, the letter was signed by most of Neville’s hard-right wing of the smallest GOP House minority in decades–including Reps. Kim Ransom, Shane Sandridge, and Dave Williams, and a new face in Rep.-elect Ron Hanks of Penrose–signaling that he is going to be a low-information treasure in the Colorado General Assembly. Although this request for an investigation based on zero actual evidence was appropriately circular-filed by Democratic House Speaker KC Becker, we’re still looking at a very substantial portion of the House GOP minority willing to subsidize misinformation so potentially toxic to American democracy that Republican leadership in Colorado is leading the local campaign to debunk it.

Which means, among other things, it’s time for Chairman Buck to make some phone calls.