WEEK OF OCTOBER 31, 2024
VOLUME 129 | ISSUE 35
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How does Colorado keep noncitizens and dead people from voting? BY CAITLYN KIM CPR NEWS
Back the Badge attendees admire a dog with the Elbert County Sheriff’s Office K9 Unit.
PHOTO BY HEATHER SALAZAR
Back the Badge boosts Elbert County law enforcement Sheriff’s office benefits from popular yearly fundraiser BY NICKY QUINBY SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Back the Badge, the Elbert County Sheriff ’s Office Foundation’s popular annual fundraiser, was entirely sold out months before the event on Oct. 19. This year
Catalina’s Diner catered the event, which took place at the Messer Event Center. Volunteers from Kiowa and Elbert high schools, local 4-H groups and rodeo royalty helped to make the event a success. Attendees enjoyed a sit-down steak dinner, live music by Nate Tornone, both silent and live auctions and K9 demonstrations. Guests were also treated to a surprise helicopter flyover by the Denver Police Department. Heather Salazar and her family have at-
VOICES: 12 | LIFE: 16 | CALENDAR: 19 | PUZZLES: 20
tended Back the Badge for the last five or six years. “Not only is it a fun evening with friends and family but more importantly it supports our brothers and sisters in blue in their time of need,” she said. “Our law enforcement family put their lives on the line every day to help and protect us. This is an opportunity for us to give back and support them through fundraising for the foundation.” SEE FUNDRAISER, P14
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. Next to the question, the document says, “if you answered No, do not complete this form.” “So, it’s a self-affirmation. We are hoping that you are answering that question correctly,” Koppes explained. But “when we start registering you to vote in the voter registration system, we do verify and check.” In other words: trust, but verify. Clerks and the Secretary of State’s Office rely on a long list of databases to SEE SECURITY, P6
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