WEEK OF OCTOBER 24, 2024
VOLUME 129 | ISSUE 34
Election officials push back at Ganahl’s ‘reckless’ claims of voting security issues
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SCHOOL OF CHOICE Special pull-out section
BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Less than a month out from Election Day, current and former local election officials met in Douglas County to contest claims of voting security problems after a barrage of allegations raised by Colorado’s 2022 Republican candidate for governor, Heidi Ganahl. Ganahl’s effort to push those claims is “a reckless attempt for attention,” said Matt Crane, a Republican who is a former Arapahoe County clerk and recorder. Clerks act as the top election officials for their counties, and the Douglas and Boulder clerks showed up alongside Crane to speak in Highlands Ranch about voting security following Ganahl’s bevy of claims that partly focused on Douglas County. The former candidate said the voting system could be exposed to unauthorized remote access, but clerks disputed that concern. “Our officials have been patting us on the head, telling us everything is fine; everything is not fine, and how would they even know?” Ganahl said in a recent post on the Rocky Mountain Voice, a conservative outlet that she founded. At the news conference, two weeks after Ganahl took aim at Douglas County, the local clerk announced a new effort to ensure confidence in the election system. “Douglas County will be providing a live stream of the surveillance (feed) at each of our 21 drop boxes throughout this election,” Douglas Clerk Sheri Davis said. The public can view the 24/7 live stream of the video surveillance via the drop box locations page on the county website at douglasvotes.com. “And remember, elections are run by people from right in your own community who make sure the process is secure and that your vote counts,” Davis, a Republican, said in a statement after the news conference. Clerks began mailing ballots on Oct. 11 to registered voters for the November election. Overseas and military voters’ ballots were sent out by Sept. 21, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. Here’s a look at what clerks had to say about Ganahl’s claims. ‘Unauthorized access’ concerns
Voters who follow the news may be familiar with the question of whether voting systems can be hacked or misused via the internet. SEE CLERKS, P6
The Elizabeth School District has declared a “fiscal exigency” after incurring what Superintendent Dan Snowberger called “a lot of unexpected, significant expenses.” PHOTO BY NICKY QUINBY
Elizabeth Schools make cuts to balance budget ‘Fiscal exigency’ declaration clears path for changes BY NICKY QUINBY SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Near the end of the Sept. 23 Elizabeth School District board meeting, Board President Rhonda Olsen moved to declare a “fiscal exigency,” based on Superintendent Dan Snowberger’s recommendation. “Fiscal Exigency” is the statutory tool used in Colorado to allow
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districts to balance budgets after the year begins, explained Snowberger. “So we’ve incurred a lot of unexpected, significant expenses over this last year. Some of them carried forward from last year to this year and then we have a bunch of new ones this year,” Olsen explained. “Just to give you a few examples, we have the well failure at Singing Hills, which was quite a bit of money, we had the water tower repair at the middle and high school, we had a long-overdue fire alarm retrofitting at the middle school, we had a large legal settlement related to a three-year-old case at the
high school, and we’ve also had substantial operational cost increases for insurance and curricular implementation, although very much needed, at EMS.” The board directed Snowberger to find up to $500,000 in budget reductions within 14 days. Olsen clarified that the reductions have the “least impact as possible on student learning, on the curriculum we’re trying to implement, and the teacher/professional development and support …” Snowberger said that the district SEE SCHOOLS, P16
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