(Promoted by Colorado Pols)
So I attended the Pueblo County Republican Party Meeting on May 13, 2014. My intent was to go incognito, as a generic interested Puebloan, and to find out what Marilyn Marks, (left) the featured speaker and Colorado elections activist, had to say about elections in Pueblo, as well as how the primary-election GOP candidates were positioning themselves on issues. The meeting was open to the general public, and covered by media, including the Pueblo Chieftain. My "undercover" mode included dressing up and wearing makeup. I figured that would make me unrecognizable. It didn’t work well.
I was outed by Victor Head as someone who writes for Pols about five minutes after I dropped off the obligatory bag of chips at the pot luck table. Nice to know that Mr. Head is a dedicated Pols reader, and that he follows my writing, in particular. It’s always nice to meet a fan.
Becky Mizel, head of the Pueblo Republican Party, wanted to see my card. “I don’t have a card,” said I, truthfully. “That’s strange,” she replied, her brow furrowing with suspicion. I gave her my best aging-flaky-schoolmarm smile, and my contact information.
Then I was introduced to the audience at large as a writer for the Colorado Independent, and had to correct that grand, but mistaken, affiliation to that of an “Independent journalist, whose work appears on Pols, but who does not work “for Pols”.
Most people were very nice and friendly to me, even after my dreadful citizen-journalist secret was revealed. Senator Crowder and Sherry Crowder, in particular, were charming. I never got a chance to ask Richard Anglund why, after derailing mail ballots in the Pueblo recall, he never actually turned in a single signature to petition onto the ballot. Perhaps that answer is self-evident, in the “derailing mail ballots in the Pueblo recall” part.
Randy Baumgartner’s moustache is even more impressive in person. I found myself pondering what kinds of hair products he uses. Gel? Mousse? A leave-in conditioning spray, perhaps? The hirsute appendage had a lasting, yet soft and sleek-looking hold.
I now know where Andrew Carnegie gets so many of his conservative cartoons. There’s apparently a site called “ImageBlitz”, which, like the Blitz bombing of London, aims for maximum propaganda destruction of sanity via constant bombardment using scowling-Obama memes. Image blitz slides were on the two wall TVs on a loop- I think I saw a hundred slides ten times each during the evening. After two hours, I felt a strong compulsion to arm a fetus to defend Benghazi and defund Obamacare.
While Marilyn Marks spoke, I was still trying to be discreet, so positioned my camera under the table. If you choose to inflict it upon yourself, you will hear 34 minutes of Marilyn Marks, and see 34 minutes of the underside of a plastic table. I tried to replace the video with photos, and keep the audio, to no avail. Youtube video editor sucks. I-movie has become user-unfriendly. I’m open to suggestions. If you’re a Pueblo Republican, Becky Mizel has some high quality video of Marks’ speech. She’ll probably let you see it.
What Marilyn Marks Said:
Marilyn Marks, spoke to a partisan crowd, from an admittedly Republican perspective : (00:31 in the video) Her claims are numbered below, with their time signatures from the video. My comments:
About Colorado’s Election Laws, and their effects:
Marks thinks that recently passed election laws HB1303 and HB1164 were completely partisan, and have opened up elections to fraud with no penalties. (Quotes 1 and 2 below.) There is nothing in HB1164 nullifying penalties for election fraud, and in fact, the law affirms existing penalties and codes. She claimed that 16 year olds and noncitizens are receiving ballots, with the implication that these people are also voting. (3 and 4 below).This is contradicted by the language of HB1164, 1-13.5-202, which specifically states that municipal voters need to be eligible to vote under the Uniform Election Code. • She implied that election judges could be drunk or criminal,“the last person to leave the bar”, although HB1164 mandates a training program and the firing of any judge who refuses to be trained. (5 and 6 below)
Essentially, Marks posits that Colorado's new election laws leave opportunities for fraud: “We are the only state that has all-mail ballots and same day voter registration. It is a toxic mix that absolutely acts for corruption.” (#10, below)
However, unless one intentionally sets out to commit election fraud, a la Jon Caldara, or with the numerous methods Marks detailed in her speech (23-27 below), election fraud will be as rare as it has always been in Colorado.
About Mail in Ballots:
Marks is not a fan of mail-in- ballots. She claimed that Democrats intimidate voters and “harvest” only friendly ballots. There has never been any evidence of this, although, of course, Marks claims to "know of cases" of intimidation and "ballot harvesting", but, of course, provides no specifics. (below, 10, 11)
"I have seen heartbreaking undue influence…with mail in ballots. They are being used for barter, for cash, and with threats. So…..if Marks saw this, why didn’t she report ihese election fraud felony offenses? Why is she shielding these “criminals”?
Marks also confirmed what many of us had suspected since the 2013 recall of Senator Angela Giron: mail-in ballots, or the lack of them, was the crucial limiting factor, which enabled the recall forces to win in Pueblo. 70% of the mail-in ballot vote in the recall was against the recall; 56% of the in-person-at-the-polling-place was for the recall. Marks' behind-the-scenes advocacy, as Victor Head said, "won the recall election".
About Republican Chances of Winning in Colorado:
Given Marks’ basic premise that there is an evil Democratic plot to steal elections, she also believes that Republicans must start playing “defense” – whatever that is….in order to win elections. She contradicts conventional wisdom about the ease of GOP wins in the upcoming midterm elections:
“They will say that Republicans have a great mid-term election advantage. Not in Colorado. Why? ….That turns the turn-out assumptions upside-down. Because turnout is no longer a big effort. Turnout comes to the people. The ballots delivered to the door. And it is so easy to get someone to vote. And the best organized, with the most boots on the ground, …and who are willing to, let’s say, put the most pressure on the voter will win. Unfortunately, they have the advantage." (Quotes 7-8, 13-15)
Marks: "Pundits are saying that Mid term elections brought older white voters to the polls, and a lot of people would say that Republicans are older white voters." (The Republican meeting was certainly much older and much whiter than the Democratic meetings I’ve been to in Pueblo).
Republicans, says Marks, are at a disadvantage in Colorado this year, due to passage of the election laws. To overcome this disadvantage, Republicans must play "defense". (See Quotes 12-15 below)
Ms. Mark’s ideas for Republicans to play “defense” involve :
o Okay. The GOP can generate their own corps of dedicated volunteers who will break their behinds getting R, D, I, or U ballots to the clerks within 72 hours.
o Voter suppression was tried, and struck out. Are there more suppression tactics planned before the 2014 elections? Do they involve the use of intentional voter fraud to prove that "election laws don't work"?
Ms. Marks detailed several ways to commit voter registration fraud, voting fraud, and election fraud in general: ( below, quotes 22-26)
My understanding is that these stratagems won’t work because of the requirement for picture ID for first time voters, signature verification, and cross checks with DMV and Homeland Security databases.
But dream on, Ms. Marilyn, dream on.
How she feels about Pueblo’s Clerk, Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz, and Election Clerks in general:
Marilyn Marks is frequently at odds with election clerks of both parties and all Colorado counties. It's fair to say that Ms. Marks seldom meets an election she believes is conducted properly, and she is not shy about her sharp criticisms of election clerks and election procedures. See quotes 23-29 below.
13:47 I know that you all are going to have a robust, well-fought Clerk’s race here. And I can’t thank Victor Head enough, for stepping up (applause), because it is so important. “
Marks says that privacy is critically important for voting and that mail ballots destroy privacy: (except when Republicans violate voter privacy ourselves for political purposes)
At 31:28 – 33:00, Ms. Marks advocates public shaming of voters. She says that lists of people who have and have not voted are public information, and that those lists can be published online. Just in the interest of voting integrity, you understand.
It took me a few hours to get those looped image blitz slides out of my head. Once I no longer felt compelled to defend a fetus' right to bear arms, or to defund Benghazi, I considered what my real takeaways from the evening were.
Republican party activists are nice, decent, ordinary people, who have a very intense, obsessive belief that Democrats are out to steal the vote! They really believe it. At least some of them do, and the rest are opportunists who find it to their financial advantage to encourage this belief. Marilyn Marks, I think, is in both categories, which.makes her doubly dangerous to the rights of voters in Colorado- she is a woman on a mission to seek out fraud and loss of privacy for voters, even if, like Jon Caldara, she has to create the fraud and violate voter privacy herself.
Quotes from Marks Speech, Pueblo County Republican Committee, 5/13/2014:
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I was wondering if you think that unemployed plumber Victor Head has any chance of taking Bo Ortiz's job from him?
I think that Victor Head can get the angry-conservative demographic, the same crowd who turned out for the Pueblo recall. That was 31% of the total Pueblo electorate.
If Democrats stay home, or don't send in their ballots, Head could win. It's an unlikely outcome, though. Bo is very popular here, not least because he also runs an efficient Department of Motor Vehicles.
On the other hand, if Republicans accept Marks' reasoning, and are made so fearful of mail ballots that they refuse to send them in, it helps Bo's chances. Irony is a wonderful thing.
I'm glad that lying piece of shit reads Pols. He should hope the voters don't.
Pueblo Recall Organizer Admits Lying To Petition Signers
And here's the one where his lying was proven beyond any doubt:
http://coloradopols.com/diary/54106/the-pueblo-chieftain-crosses-the-line-again
To hell with that punk. Maybe he can fix my toilet instead.
Voter fraud must exist, because why else would increasing numbers of Coloradans reject crazy wakaddodle ideas, favor science over denial, and eshew corporate dominance? Ergo ipso factoid sum. Dipositerriffic.
I have been spending quite a bit of time in Pueblo as of late on a case. Interesting place.
Yes, Pueblo is an interesting, unique place.
MJ, nice work.
Ummmm, thanks! I tried to just report what Marks said, wacky as it sounded to me.
Btw,I never heard of ImageBlitz. Thanks for the heads up. I suspect there are probably many sites with similar cartoons, given the decentralized way in which most of us take our news these days.
h, hey here's something for your weekend pleasure, AC. You know what thwy say about presidetntial elections, Republicans and Ohio? Well….
Ohio: Christie vs. Clinton
Quinnipiac
Clinton 46, Christie 38
Clinton +8
Ohio: Paul vs. Clinton
Quinnipiac
Clinton 49, Paul 41
Clinton +8
Ohio: Bush vs. Clinton
Quinnipiac
Clinton 48, Bush 39
Clinton +9
Ohio: Huckabee vs. Clinton
Quinnipiac
Clinton 49, Huckabee 41
Clinton +8
Ohio: Ryan vs. Clinton
Quinnipiac
Clinton 48, Ryan 41
Clinton +7
Ohio: Rubio vs. Clinton
Quinnipiac
Clinton 47, Rubio 40
Clinton +7
Ohio: Cruz vs. Clinton
Quinnipiac
Clinton 51, Cruz 37
Clinton +14
That's just a poll, BC. The republicans will make sure those Clintonistas don't vote.
Yeah but I bet it still yanks AC's chain.
BC, I am more interested in 2014.
Increase majority in House.
Take over Senate.
By the time 2016 comes around the Dems will find someone less than 70 years old, without a recent traumatic brain injury which required 6 months of intensive therapy to overcome according to her husband, to run.
Maybe Crazy Joe will be the nominee.
Perhaps the Sebilius.
There are so many interesting possibilities and a couple years to figure it out.
Turd. Traumatic brain injuries are serious and would not be casual political fodder for a normal human being. You are a sociopath and an asshole.
Thanks MJ. Apparently, these people are even crazier, more hateful and more paranoid than I thought and I already thought they were pretty damn crazy, hateful and paranoid!
Now that we know what tricks they have up their sleeves for this cycle, we'll be ready. Thanks for ripping their sleeves off, MJ.
It is nice to know that Victor Head follows Pols . . .
Hey Victor — fuck you! With or without your AR, you're always gonna' be a little piece of shit!
Well, we now know WHY Victor Head is unemployed.
Would any employer want to send that nut case into a private home?
I don't know that Head is unemployed. He is an unlicensed plumber. I worked as an unlicensed electrician when I was his age. It's not always easy to get into the union shops,
Head is not qualified to oversee elections in Pueblo as Clerk, and the possibility that he could be elected to that position is frightenng, but he may be good at the trade he has now.
I get it…Claim voter fraud all the while perpetuating "election" fraud…typicle gop/bagger corruption…
Ah, yes, Freedom-Loving, Big-Tent Republicans who demand to see your papers when you show up to a meeting that was open to the general public.
When she says "us", I wonder who she means…it sure as hell doesn't include me…
That was one of the more chilling statements Marks made. After the formal speech, there was a Q&A session, which unfortunately, I did not capture on audio.
In it, Marks gave more details about constructing a "remote" to hack a voting machine. She said that it would cost about $8 – $20 in parts, and require the technical expertise of a junior high school kid to construct it. She may only be referencing the videos and material available on the Bradblog here. This is a real thing, apparently – at least an expert at the Argonne National Laboratory thinks so.
It's a real thing, but it stands a decent chance of being detected here in Colorado; the audit requirements for elections and the existence of voter verified paper trails makes these attacks difficult to execute on a large scale here.
This Salon article has a bit more detail… http://www.salon.com/2011/09/27/votinghack/