Serving the community since 1926
WEEK OF OCTOBER 31, 2024
VOLUME 97 | ISSUE 48
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Something wicked on Wadsworth
How does Colorado keep noncitizens and dead people from voting? Protections involve everything from the DMV database to what’s known as the ‘death list’ BY CAITLYN KIM CPR NEWS
The family attends Halloween conventions to keep up with the latest costumes and trends. They also travel, sometimes to Europe, for ideas. The compound’s haunted church which includes a small portal to hell, is a small replica of a church the family inspected on the British Isles. The compound includes rusted pickups, mining equipment and – Holder’s favorite – old shovels that have done their fair share of digging. “I don’t know, I’ve just always liked shovels,” he said. There is even an old Cessna, dropped into the compound to simulate an airplane crash. All have been collected over the years by the Holders to add authenticity to every scene at the compound.
As the election draws nearer, Coloradans have a lot of questions around voting — about how the process works, and also, what protections are there to ensure ineligible people aren’t casting ballots. It’s a perennial concern in every election, but one that has heated up this year, that somehow large numbers of non-citizens — and the dead — will manage to cast ballots. Weld County Clerk and Recorder Carly Koppes has been fielding versions of these fears since she first started working in the office in 2004. The Republican, who was first elected Clerk in 2014, is on her 6th presidential cycle. “This isn’t the first presidential election that we’ve got a lot of voters asking, ‘what about the illegals?’” she said. Despite no widespread evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election, an NPR poll shows that a majority of Americans are concerned that there will be fraud this time around, in large part due to former President Donald Trump’s false statements. A majority of respondents in that survey said they believe noncitizens will be able to vote in the upcoming presidential election. A number of audits, investigations and studies confirmed the results of the 2020 election, which President Joe Biden won. The checks to ensure only eligible voters end up on the voter rolls start with the first question asked of anyone registering to vote in Colorado. “On the form it says, ‘Are you a citizen of the United State? Yes or No?” Koppes said, pointing to a printed copy of Colorado’s official voter registration form.
SEE WICKED, P4
SEE VOTING, P6
The Frightmare Compound has terrified people for more than 40 years. Here, a masked driver taunts kids during the 2023 Arvada Harvest Festival FILE PHOTO parade.
Westminster’s Frightmare Compound continues to scare people after 40 years BY MONTE WHALEY MWHALEY@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Josh Holder doesn’t know exactly how many mutilated, decapitated and mentally diseased bodies are dangling or lurking inside the Frightmare Compound his family has run for the past 41 years. His best guess is that about 20 or more poor, tortured souls inhabit the site’s wooden barn and other structures on the four-acre site that squats on 108th Avenue
and Wadsworth Boulevard. “The bodies are all fake,” the 39-yearold Holder said. “Mostly,” he added, with a quick smile. An iconic Westminster landmark, the Frightmare Compound was started by his dad, Brad, a Halloween connoisseur and lover of horror movies, Holder said. He built Frightmare on old swamp land and began piecing together a haunted house for the metro area. When his dad died in 1999, the family kept the compound and poured their creative energy into all things wicked to keep the compound and its terrifying attractions fresh and running. “We always try and do something different than last year,” Holder said. “We want to keep things scary and memorable for everyone.”
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