(C) Colorado Newsline This story was originally published by Colorado Newsline and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Colorado county clerks focus on election transparency, worker safety • Colorado Newsline [1] ['Lindsey Toomer', 'Chase Woodruff', 'Ashley Murray', 'Jacob Fischler', 'Ariana Figueroa', 'More From Author', '- June', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus'] Date: 2024-06-04 Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Molly Fitzpatrick’s job used to be a largely behind-the-scenes role focused on the unremarkable work of facilitating elections and other county administrative functions. Those days are long gone. Now, Fitzpatrick said in an interview, clerks are front and center, included in regular conversations about election credibility and security. In the wake of the 2020 election, many clerks have their integrity questioned daily and have faced regular harassment and threats from people who believe the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. “Pre-2020, we weren’t called traitors. We were not told that we’re part of the problem,” said Fitzpatrick, a Democrat first elected in 2018. “Clerks didn’t receive death threats. We weren’t told, ‘You cannot stop what’s coming, no one can,’ or talking about public executions. None of that rhetoric was there prior to 2020.” Election officials around Colorado and the rest of the country have upped security measures to protect their staff and volunteers, as well as to safeguard their election systems from potential tampering. At the same time, they’ve sought to increase transparency and share more information to instill trust with their workers and their processes as they run elections. Fitzpatrick, who also serves as president of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said security around elections comes in two forms: ensuring safety for election workers who are facing threats from election deniers, and protecting elections equipment and processes from potential disruptions. Claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent or compromised have been debunked by elections officials, experts, media investigations, law enforcement and the courts. Most clerks are adding additional security camera coverage around ballot drop boxes and their elections offices. Many are implementing more training on safety and election security for staff and volunteers, as well as access controls for certain rooms with election equipment. Some also open their offices up to the public so they can show people exactly how they run elections and verify ballots and vote counts. Matt Crane, executive director of CCCA, said elections teams have always conducted safety and security assessments and reported any potential vulnerabilities. He said in recent years there’s been a larger focus on sharing information and reporting anything clerks could construe as a potential threat or problem so others can be aware. Fitzpatrick said her office has ramped up training on so-called insider threats, like the one allegedly posed by former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters in a 2021 breach of secure election equipment. Election workers are receiving training on what to look out for and how to report any suspicious activity, as well as emergency responses for situations including active shooters and white substances found in ballot envelopes. “We are in better communication than we ever have been with our district attorney’s office and the sheriff’s office just to make sure that everyone’s aware of what’s going on, ensuring that they have the latest information on situational awareness,” Fitzpatrick said. “We do not have active threats in Boulder County, but we want to make sure that we’re looking at what’s happening across the country, because we know that patterns matter and we’re not immune from something happening in Boulder County.” ‘These aren’t conversations we were having in 2020’ Federal law enforcement agencies have issued dire warnings about potential threats to the 2024 election, with one FBI official telling the winter conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State in Washington earlier this year that the outlook is “extremely alarming,” according to Stateline. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold in February launched a grant program to help county clerks pay for security upgrades to deal with election-related threats. El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Steve Schleiker, a Republican, said he needs to be able to answer any voter who asks what El Paso County is doing to ensure their safety when exercising their right to vote. He upgraded every security camera at ballot boxes in his county so they are now solar–powered, and he streams live footage from those cameras at all times. Because he said safety for his staff and election workers is his top priority, Schleiker also installed a film that is resistant to bullets of a certain caliber over the windows looking into the ballot processing room. The door to the elections department remains locked at all times with a security camera, so anyone trying to enter must identify themselves and be let in by staff. Schleiker is in contact with local law enforcement agencies to discuss having a security presence around voting centers in case any emergencies arise. He also started training his team on how to use Narcan, an opioid-overdose reversal antidote, and keeps doses at all of his county’s voting service and polling centers after elections officials in other states received letters contaminated with fentanyl. Fentanyl is an extremely potent synthetic opioid linked to tens of thousands of accidental overdose deaths annually, though toxicologists say that fears of passive exposure to aerosolized fentanyl powder are largely unfounded. “I never thought I would be sitting here looking at the different things, the conversations I’m having today,” Schleiker said. “The security measures that I’m putting in place today, such as having conversations about Narcan — these aren’t conversations we were having in 2020.” When Schleiker started as clerk, he said he worked with the El Paso County Office of Emergency Management to implement plans for a variety of different emergencies. He said conversations around security have become a weekly occurrence for clerks and election staff at the secretary of state’s office. “A situation may never ever happen, however, we should be prepared for it, because if it does happen, we have everything in place,” Schleiker said. It is healthy to have conversations. It's healthy to disagree. It is not okay to incite violence. It is not okay to attack our election systems in a really disingenuous way. – Jefferson County Clerk Amanda Gonzalez Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez, a Democrat, said she’s put additional focus on her office’s relationship with emergency response teams in place in the county. She said while some of the threats elections departments are facing may be new to them, the local sheriff’s office might have familiarity with similar threats in a different context and can lend a hand in addressing their concerns. “Prior to 2020, I did not think that particularly on a national level, our disagreements would take the tone they did,” Gonzalez said. “It is healthy to have conversations. It’s healthy to disagree. It is not okay to incite violence. It is not okay to attack our election systems in a really disingenuous way.” Increasing transparency Gonzalez said her office has started running tours for the public earlier and more frequently than in years prior in hopes of furthering public awareness about election systems. She said after 2020, more people started criticizing and questioning the systems in a rude, disingenuous way. When her office gets calls or emails expressing concerns about allegations that are inaccurate, Gonzalez said they will invite people to come in and talk about the systems directly. She said sometimes people will come out with a better understanding and respect for the clerks’ processes, but sometimes they will continue to be rude and reiterate their distrust in the elections process. “One of the things that we can do to help people have faith in our elections, and hopefully be kinder to our election workers, is to be transparent about the system,” Gonzalez said. “We are happy to answer those questions and engage with voters when it’s coming from a place of wanting to understand more about our systems.” Fitzpatrick said her team has also added security as part of its public tours. Visitors are asked to leave personal belongings in their cars during tours. “I think this moment demands deep transparency into our operations, and we’re trying to meet that moment by doubling down on anything that provides transparency to the public, but we have to ensure that’s balanced with security measures for our staff and our judges, because they deserve it,” Fitzpatrick said. “They are here implementing the election despite enormous circumstances, and it’s important that we’re continually improving how we’re supporting and securing their environment.” Rio Grande County Clerk and Recorder Cindy Hill, a Republican, also added video cameras in and around her office and increased security training for election workers. She said her office shares the added concerns around physical safety to the office and elections equipment and is training everyone to be aware of their surroundings. “We held a training for the public during the presidential primary explaining the process,” Hill said in an email. “We asked the attendees to bring their ballots to the training so they could see how we do signature verification, batching, and processing of the ballot.” A ‘citizen election academy’ One opportunity the CCCA is pursuing to help members of the public gain a better understanding of elections is through a “citizen election academy” currently in the works. Crane said he hopes to have the first two online classes from the program available in August or September ahead of the general election. “The idea is over the next couple of years, we will build this out to cover all aspects of the election,” Crane said. “But really it is so that citizens, if they want to know how the election is really run and hear from the experts who run them, this academy is a great opportunity for them to come and learn about what really happens.” The academy will aim to preemptively debunk some of the disinformation the association is anticipating will spread during the height of election season — but Crane said he’s already anticipating that some candidates will reject election results if they lose in the primary or general elections. “Being honest about our elections is not in their DNA and certainly not advantageous to them either politically or financially,” Crane said. “So we do expect that, but our folks are more ready than ever in terms of… documenting everything and being prepared if somebody tries to come back and say ‘Well, you didn’t do this,’ and then saying, ‘Well, yes we do and here’s how we can prove it.’” Three historically Republican leaning congressional districts in Colorado all have open races for their next representative in Congress this year, and Crane said teams in those districts are prepared to face higher levels of disinformation. Schleiker said he also anticipates people will continue to reject election results, despite all the efforts he and other clerks have made to increase transparency and awareness around election systems. To him, continued education at the most basic level is the best way to combat disinformation. “I respect everybody’s opinions and things like that, but we’re here to conduct a job,” Schleiker said. “My job as clerk and recorder is not to be partisan — my job is to call the balls and strikes. I am the referee, and we are going to coordinate the best and safest elections that I possibly can.” Gonzalez said her office has also ramped up its presence at community events to help share accurate information about Jefferson County elections and recruit election judges, bipartisan teams that support county clerks in executing elections. She said her county hires about 300 people for primary elections and about 900 for the general election in November, and one of the first questions she gets from people interested in being an election judge is, “Is it safe?” While concerns about safety have been heightened, Gonzalez said interest in serving as a judge has also grown. Her office filled their temporary election worker team quicker than any years prior, which makes her optimistic. “What that says to me is that people are seeing the threat to our democracy, and they’re not having it,” Gonzalez said. “They know that you should be voting, you should be participating in events in your community, you should be civically engaged. And if we want our democracy to survive, you have to fight for it.” “You have to show up,” she added. “You have to do your part, and we’re not going to be scared off by this vocal but small group that wants to dismantle our democracy. Those people are just not the majority.” Colorado’s primary election is June 25. The general election is Nov. 5. [END] --- [1] Url: https://coloradonewsline.com/2024/06/04/colorado-county-clerks-focus-on-election-transparency-worker-safety/ Published and (C) by Colorado Newsline Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/coloradonewsline/