Colorado pro-democracy group’s election hotline goes up • Colorado News

When early voting opened, Belknap said a voter intimidation incident was reported to Rio Grande County through a hotline that the county handled “just right” — she said the person who posed the threat was removed from the polling place and voters were able to enter their ballots.

“It just goes to show that our county’s election officials are extremely dedicated to identifying and responding to any form of intimidation or violence, and we’ve been very grateful to have nothing but great conversations with these clerks so far,” Belknap. said

Voters with questions or concerns can call the hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE. Belknap and Common Cause leaders from other western states, including Arizona, Oregon and California, held a press briefing Thursday morning to highlight their efforts to protect the election.

Nonpartisan poll watchers in Colorado

Belknap said her organization has 250 poll watchers stationed across the state this week and next week, monitoring voter intimidation, accessibility issues, election administration issues and voting rights issues. Observers will also be monitoring Colorado’s new election laws, such as banning open or concealed carry near polling places, she said.

“It’s extremely important that we have people in place to ensure and enforce these laws and that there is no intimidation, and if they are, we can respond to that,” Belknap said.

The joint venture will hold another training session for interested impartial poll watchers at noon on Friday. The organization also adjusted its poll-monitoring program this year to allow for a greater presence at the ballot box, particularly because of the potential for improper monitoring of the polls that could interfere with voting, Belknap said.

“We’re redeploying volunteer capacity to cover those places and make sure there’s no foul play and that we can work with our election officials to identify anything that needs to be addressed,” she said. “Our volunteers are ordinary people who come together to work and protect democracy because they care deeply about it.”

Belnap said that given the length of voting in Colorado this year, voters need more time to get to the polls and that a high turnout is expected on Election Day. As of noon Thursday, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office reported about 1.6 million ballots had been returned.

Following Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s announcement on Tuesday that partial system passwords were exposed in a published document on the state’s election website, Belknap said voters should be confident that no voting machines have been compromised.

“We have many layers of safeguards built into Colorado’s election system that prevent one breach from twisting the system itself,” she said. “At this point, we just want people to know that one breach cannot and should not change our election system, and nothing will change about your voting experience this year, from receiving your ballot in the mail or voting in person to having your vote counted as , as you planned.”

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced Thursday that he is use of state resources complete the process of securing the voting system in the affected counties of Colorado. Belknap said she hopes the investigation will provide more answers for Coloradans.

“We are concerned that situations like this, even if they occur in an extremely strong and secure election system, can fuel these misinformation narratives that our elections are not secure, that the voters’ votes will not be counted as intended,” Belknap said. . “We’re trying to let people know that you can be sure that’s not the case.”