Republicans and third-party representatives filed a formal complaint Monday with the Colorado Secretary of State demanding the release of all election records after “partisan” election judges allegedly infringed on the ability of election watchers to monitor vote-counting.
“Watchers’ effectiveness has been marginalized, and watchers’ rights to challenge voters and judges’ decisions have been infringed,” according to the complaint, which was obtained by The Daily Caller.
The complaint involves all 2014 races in Colorado, including the U.S. Senate race won by Republican Cory Gardner, but the Senate and gubernatorial races in the state will not be swung at this point by the release of new information. Colorado State House races, in which Democrats won a majority, are liable to be disputed.
Election watchers and county party officials from the Republican, Libertarian, and American Constitution Parties want information to be released about vote-counting procedures in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Jefferson, and Pueblo counties.
Republicans allege that some Democrats changed their party affiliation to sign up as Republican election judges in key counties. At least one example of this practice was confirmed in Boulder county. Election judges allegedly marginalized Republican election watchers with unilaterally imposed rules, according to the complaint.
“In some counties where we have attempted to watch election processes underway, clerks are not allowing watchers to review any of the records being used or generated in the conduct of the election,” according to the complaint. Additionally, parties’ requests for documents are being treated as public records requests, which are taking two or more weeks to fulfill.
“Additionally, numerous partisan election judges were recruited and appointed by the clerks without the required request made to the party chairs prior to the election, and without the approval by the party chairs,” according to the complaint.
The signature verification process for mail-in ballots is being disputed.
“In numerous counties, if not the majority of counties where signature verification watching was attempted, watchers were unable to appropriately and responsibly review signatures and the signature acceptance/rejection decisions. This prevented responsible challenges to questionable signatures except in very rare cases,” according to the complaint.
