A second Republican county clerk in Colorado is being investigated for stealing confidential election data and passing it to unauthorized persons.
I previously wrote here about Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk, a GOP election conspiracy activist arrested for election crimes, assaulting a police officer, and contempt of court.
Dallas Schroeder, the smiling man at left and Elbert County clerk, is another Republican who believes Trump’s “stolen election” nonsense, and like Peters was caught passing confidential information (in this case, illegally copied hard drives) to people close to Mike Lindell (profile here), a Trump pal and prominent promoter of false election conspiracy theories. Read story here.
Peters and Schroeder are 2 of 8 known cases in 5 states of Republicans breaching voting systems “in search of evidence … that voting machines somehow flipped votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden in the 2020 election” (details here).
Of course, they didn’t find such evidence, because it doesn’t exist. They’re chasing a will-o’-the-wisp; it’s tough to prove something that didn’t happen.
It’s not clear to me what these people are thinking. I question whether they think at all, as it certainly appears they let Trump and Lindell do their thinking for them, and just swallow what they’re told no matter how absurd it is. But let’s be clear about they’re doing. People like Peters and Schroeder aren’t only stupid and gullible; they’re breaking the law and violating our civil rights.
This is true regardless of whether they hold public offices and have authorized access to voting equipment and data. The law says they can’t tamper with the equipment or share the data, and when they do, they’re engaging in criminal conduct.
I’m not convinced they’re part of a giant conspiracy to undermine public faith in elections. I think they’re just followers of a cult-like movement.
But whatever their motivation is, state laws establish the rules for conducting elections, counting votes, and challenging results. You don’t get to make your own rules in sports, poker games, or elections. There’s only one legal way to win an election, and that’s by getting the most votes.
Republicans, apparently, don’t like that rule. Too bad. They’re passing laws to make it harder to vote because, they say, their constituents don’t trust elections. That’s not a legitimate reason to take away someone’s right to vote. They fomented that distrust by propagating lies and baseless election conspiracies, and now they want to change the rules because their base distrusts elections? Go fly a kite.
Let me close by saying this: A political party that behaves this way is not a party I can vote for. The Democrats aren’t perfect, but they’ll have to do, because I’m not going to vote for people who break the law, don’t accept election results, and want to prevent me from voting at all. Once people like that gain control, your freedom is gone.