Fresh off a journalistically dubious attempt to manufacture controversy around mailers and ads targeting the Republican Party’s red-hot primary elections next Tuesday, CBS4 political reporter Shaun Boyd is back with another grabby headline in the expectedly fraught U.S. Senate contest between equally unknown contenders “Rando” Joe O’Dea and state Rep. “Raging” Ron Hanks:
That’s right, folks–in a move that should surprise no one, Rep. Ron Hanks is refusing to commit to accepting the results of next Tuesday’s election. And since you asked, he’s got reasons. Lots of reasons:
Hanks attended former President Trump’s “stop the steal” rally on Jan. 6. When asked if he would accept the results of the primary election, Hanks responded, “We’ll have to see what we’ll see here.”
Hanks called for changes in election procedures.
“I think we ought scrub the voters rolls clean and start over… and frankly the mail-in ballots is a big problem.” [Pols emphasis]
Of course, the election in which Rep. Hanks is currently running is being conducted almost exclusively with mail ballots. And although Hanks might like for the voter rolls to be “scrubbed clean,” that’s not going to happen before next Tuesday either.
So basically, unless Ron Hanks wins, and make no mistake, he may well–but if he doesn’t, just like President Donald Trump himself did months before the 2020 presidential elections, Hanks has set himself up to simply disregard the results and declare himself the winner based on stipulations he knew would not be satisfied. Which, again, is nothing more than what Trump himself did.
O’Dea insists Hanks election conspiracy theories are why Democrats are spending millions to make him the nominee…
O’Dea is partly right, but he can’t admit to the real reason why. Hanks’ election conspiracy theories are dangerous in the Republican primary for one simple reason: a majority of Republicans agree with him. This is the point that has been steadfastly missed by the alarmist media coverage of “Democratic meddling” in Republican primaries in recent weeks. Playing up Hanks’ views wouldn’t help anyone if Republican voters weren’t on his side.
And so, like Rep. Lauren Boebert sweating unaffiliated voters in her primary, we all have to wait and see if they choose to honor the rules of democracy…or go the way of January 6th.
It’s the genie that Trump let out of the bottle.
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"Scrubbing the voter rolls clean?"
Sort of like ethnic cleansing…
..only with votes.
Amirite?
Scrub them clean until they are lily white.
Remove any darkness that's a blight.
Hanks wants voters who are willing to fight like Hell for their exclusive rights.
You are right of right on this one Duke.
We should return to only white male property owners as voters.
We will probably not get the opportunity to see Loren Hanks do his sore-loser imitation of his spiritual leader, DJT, and have a hissy fit following the election.
It's more likely that Joe O'Dea will be giving a reasonably gracious concession speech on Tuesday night and offering his support to Hanks.
This stink will linger into November and the shouts of fraud will be raised to God until Congress is seated in January 2023. I hope Hanks spends a lot of his personal money contesting the General. A lot.
"I hope Hanks spends a lot of his personal money contesting the General."
Does he have any? I thought O'Dea was the guy w/ the money.
Ditto with the gubernatorial candidates.
HiediHeidi has her Camp Bow Wow money. Lopez, not so much.Looks like the GOP is going to run a ticket which will have to spend a lot of time hitting up MAGA World for donations. The Dems, not so much.
Funny, last time I checked voting was a fundamental constitutional right, but here we are.
Only if you vote for right-wing fruit loops.
He can scrub existing voter rolls from my cold, dead hands, though I might regret saying that. Talk about babies and bathwater! He must be at least somewhat aware that the National Voter Registration Act and Help America Vote Act both have provisions about managing voter rolls, and that elections offices must follow these laws, and that people are removed from voter rolls if there is good reason. Sure, tweak and improve where needed, but his public statements just make me think his solution to everything is "blow it up real good."
That pretty much IS the solution to everything for the GQP base. Hanks just has to say things like that periodically to maintain their support, but my bet is he'd be first in line to line his pockets from the gubmint teat if he gets the chance. Fortunately, beating Bennet will be out of his range.
I wouldn’t bet that Hanks knows anything about government, civics, or history. He went right out of high school into the military, where he stayed for almost 30 years. He took classes in linguistics and drone warfare; civics, not so much.
College is not mentioned on either of his political incarnations: as Loren Hanks in CA < 2010, or Ron Hanks, CO >2010.
Colorado republican candidates are really leaning into the bullshit of stolen elections even in their own primaries shows that they're nothing more than a freakish cult hell bent on obtaining political power by any means.
The republican party has been dead for about 6 years and was replaced replaced by a freaking nationalistic racist cult called Trumpism/MAGA.
There are far too few so called rational elected republicans left in office in either Colorado or any other state that can make a difference, not that they were all that rational to begin with.
Members of the GQP/MAGA cult have already called for the execution of LBGQT+ Americans and it will only get worse from this point. As far as I'm concerned if you still consider yourself a republican then don't get pissy when you're called a racist, nationalistic freak.
Why wouldn't they lean into it?
They've lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections. They've lost the electoral college votes in five of the last eight elections.
Trump and his demented message at least give them a path by which to win.
I'm not saying that there was or is anything ethical or moral to the path he has shown them. I'm just saying that Trump has been able to do stuff that Daddy Bush, Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney could only dream of doing.
They've made their Faustian bargain.
Will you get "pissy" if I happened to refer to you as a gaping a-hole who wants to smear everyone who is a registered R?
COgator touch a nerve, eh?
I am currently working in Denver’s election office in the Voter Registration Dept. And I can tell you from working in one of the biggest counties in Colorado that safeguards from any purging or “scrubbing” are in place.
The biggest obstacle I see to anyone voting: Voter apathy and maybe a little ignorance. By the latter I refer to the fact that I am amazed every election I work how many people are clueless about what county they live in. (and yes I do give allowances to those who live those confusing Arapahoe islands that are completely inside of Denver.) I have been doing this for 30 years and STILL have to look up most of those addresses.
Dano, my son moved to connecticut 17 years ago and Denver still sends a ballot for him to my house every election. We have tried couple of times to remove him. Is there any way to purge him without taking my whole family with him?
No big problem, but it is a waste of taxpayer money.
WHAT!?!?! Are you suggesting voter suppression?
You are going to incur the wrath of La Pomposa.
Simply mark his ballot RETURN TO SENDER and drop it in the mail. That will make him “inactive” and will prevent any future ballots being mailed to him. This will have no effect on anyone else in the household.
Do NOT take it to a vote center to drop off, election officials need the post office’s yellow sticky label (called a NIXIE) to be able to act on it.
To get his voter registration in Colorado canceled, have him go to this link https://www.coloradosos.gov/voter/pages/pub/withdrawLookup.xhtml and fill out the withdrawl form.
We’ve done that but may have sent it to a drop box. Thanks.
That's OK, have your son go to the link I gave and that will take care of the issue too.