Dear Editor,

Election security, accuracy, and transparency is of paramount importance in my office. While people, voters and candidates alike, are entitled to their opinions, I would like to educate voters with facts of how Gilpin County runs its elections.

This department is not troubled with fraud and no clerk’s office in Colorado is. We, (all County Clerks and myself since I took office in 2019), follow state statute closely and take our oaths of office seriously. The county, and the state, regularly update the voter rolls, and in fact, I’ve been tasked by the SOS [Secretary of State] with working on some files that were never updated properly back in 2015-2017. Deceased voters are removed from the roll as soon as CDPHE updates us with the deceased record (on a monthly basis).

There was one election where a voter came in to vote in-person and discovered their voter file was marked as having returned a mail ballot that was rejected. The voter stated they did not sign or return their ballot. The signature on file did not match the ballot envelope, and the ballot had been rejected as a result (we signature verify each and every ballot envelope). The system worked exactly as it should have. The voter was offered a provisional ballot to vote….and this is the perfect example of why we have provisional ballots. This is not an example of fraud; this is in fact, an excellent example of how the system of ballot acceptance or rejection works. The wrongful signature was caught and that ballot was never counted. This was a success in our procedures for keeping our elections safe! Yes, there are bad actors out there who have attempted to vote twice, but there are safeguards in place to catch them and stop them at the onset. These situations are turned over to the DA for investigation and are sometimes escalated to the CBI or FBI.

I encourage people to support the facts, and to get their election facts from the experts, and not the pundits seeking ratings on TV. All Clerks in Colorado, and across the country, take our roles very seriously, and stand together to support our elections in being secure, accurate and transparent. I myself stand for the truth behind our elections and welcome questions and civil conversation on the matter, because elections matter. Your vote matters!

Ballots will be arriving in your mailbox around June 6th or 7th. You can track your ballot by signing up for Ballot Trax at www.Gilpin.BallotTrax.net. I encourage everyone to use one of the 3 ballot drop boxes in Gilpin County, or one of 418 ballot drop boxes statewide, to return your ballot to ensure it is delivered in a timely manner. I do not want any voter being turned off to elections in thinking that elections aren’t conducted in a secure, and serious, manner. If you have any questions, or would like to know more about our processes, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Proud to serve,

Sahari McCormick

Gilpin County Clerk and Recorder