Dear Editor,

Ever since last Tuesday’s Commissioners meeting on Dec 12, 2023 I have felt quite disturbed after our County Clerk Sahari McCormick made a statement about election deniers and degraded those who may have a different view.

I have worked as an election judge since 2020 here in Gilpin County alongside Sahari. I have been praised by our County Clerk for my ability to do a great job, grasp all the duties of the job easily and remain diligent in making sure processes are strictly followed.

So, with that said…it is considerably disheartening to know that anyone that disagrees that the elections are secure or questions the electoral process or the elections themselves are made out to be Liars, bullies or bad actors AND said to be undermining our Constitution! What is TRULY undermining our Constitution is not acknowledging the 1st Amendment applies to EVERYONE including those with different opinions or lack of trust concerning Elections.

I will tell you four things that I personally witnessed (just this last November election) that raised a caution flag for me and should for others.

#1 Mail ballots being voted by someone else. A young man came in to vote, I looked him up and it said he already voted. He had to vote a provisional ballot until it was cleared up. Hopefully it was. There were 15,000 Undeliverable ballots returned in CO this last election. Those were just the returned ones. How many got thrown out or voted by someone else? I saw at least one in OUR county.

#2 Two people I know registered to vote online. One gentleman said his voter registration said Libertarian and he registered differently. My daughter was the other person and when she came in to vote at the courthouse, I pulled her voter registration up and told her she was registered as Green Party. She said she did not and had no idea what that was. She had me change her party affiliation.

#3 People make mistakes. I know this. I corrected several that were made by others concerning locking up voting machines and the wrong chain of custody signed.

#4 LAT Logic and Accuracy Test. (Show ballot) The test before the election on the counting and adjudicating machines.

Coded lines … If any of these lines of text are left out, the ballot will read wrong when running through the ballot counting machine. There was a line left off the original ballots we were using and it did not catch the errors. Luckily the Secretary of State caught our missing text I was told and more ballots were ordered. These things can and do happen.

Not to Mention:

#5 Election Audit Process (after the election) The Same software vendor does the audit as does the actual election. My husband who has 41 years of software development and systems engineering experience believes a third-party Software Company should be doing the Audits so they can test for any vulnerabilities and to insure a conflict of interest doesn’t occur. My husband is not a liar.

People make mistakes and Software and Computers get hacked. Those are Facts!

I’ve also enclosed a list of Cyber Security Threats and Hacks just in 2023 alone.

If our Dept of Defense and the pentagon can get hacked, anyone can.

I believe in the sanctity of honest and fair elections just as the County Clerks of this State do. That’s why I am an Election Judge!

I look forward to working many more elections in this county including the three coming in 2024. But please, as elected officials don’t intimidate or discourage potential judges, poll watchers or candidates by this type of derogatory name calling.

Gilpin County is a small community…inspiration and encouragement should be at the forefront if we want to keep the dignity and respect we all have for each other and that we all deserve!!

Kathleen Balfour

Black Hawk