The People, The Party & Political Distractions
Racing Toward the 2024 Candidate Selection Process
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Politics is a team sport, and people love their teams. This makes it an easy distraction for our global governors.
It used to feel like there was a break between one election and the next—a moment when the noise of campaign ads and endorsements and pleas for donations quieted, and Americans refocused on their lives.
In 2021, following the provably-stolen election, many Americans engaged in civics for the first time. Elections dominated the headlines that year and, while the media tried to paint the movement with a political brush, the facts were about civics – statutes and process and security controls. The Maricopa County audit is a great example of how election news in 2021 drove deep debates about the rights of the federal government in state elections, the balance of decision rights between state and county governments, and the role of the people in the experiment of self government. None of this was about candidates, and it was not political.
Then local November 2021 elections happened and, the very next day, it was midterm election season. 2022 was all about campaigns. Grassroots activists all over the nation continued to push for civic change, engaging with legislators and county officials, pushing for and conducting recounts and audits – but many (most) of the volunteers in these efforts shifted their limited time and resources to support campaigns. (See: Kari Lake, for how the midterms turned out.)
Just seven days after the midterm elections, on November 15, 2022, President Trump announced his 2024 reelection campaign, and it instantly became the Presidential Election season. They weren’t even done counting on November 15. There was literally no break this time around.
Civics is much more important than politics, and I hate political campaigns, so the shift to keep us in a continuous campaign season annoys me. Given our wholly controlled and completely opaque election machine, I have no use for candidates except in how they are used to drive the narrative. Trump’s campaign, and the government’s ongoing efforts to prohibit Americans from supporting that campaign, are definitely driving the narrative.
Narrative is intended to shape public opinion, and when the mockingbirds align on a message, that message is intended to drive change – to change the hearts and minds of the people in some way. Understanding the narrative allows us to understand the regime's change vision.
“We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”
Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1929)
On the June 13 episode of Badlands Daily, Jon and Chris Paul were talking about the state political party convention and assembly processes, and suggested that maybe those processes are manipulated as well.
They are.
A Tragedy of Errors
I am not a Republican, but I attended and covered the Colorado Republican Party’s Assembly and Convention in April 2022. The convention is where the voting members of the party determine which candidates make the primary ballot.
Given that we are rushing towards the 2024 GOP conventions — the 2024 candidate selection process — I want to take the opportunity to recap what happened in Colorado in 2022 because the same playbook was exercised in many states that year, and 2024 will likely rhyme. I am talking, of course, about the GOP establishment’s local war on America First.
Precinct Strategy For the Win
Dan Schultz, Steve Stern and the rest of the team at PrecinctStrategy.com have done a great job of educating Republican Party members about the role of Precinct Committeemen in the selection of candidates, and the strategy of the party establishment in keeping these positions empty.
"The Precinct Strategy, as explained by Dan Schultz at www.PrecinctStrategy.com, is a great way to restore our Republic by transforming our Party from currently at less than half-strength at the precinct level into a full-strength Get Out The Vote powerhouse - as it should be.”
- President Donald John Trump
Longtime America First Republicans in Colorado—sort of the America First elders of the state party—were holding coffee shop meet ups in early 2021 to educate party newcomers and fill those positions. They were successful in taking over the party in several counties as a result. The most significant effort was in El Paso County, the most populous county in the state, and the only county in the US that is home to five military commands.
By the time of the 2022 GOP Assembly and Convention, America First grassroots filled enough of the GOP voting positions to make an impact. Before the whole body votes on the statewide candidates – in this case Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General, but in 2024 will include President of the United States – the districts nominate and vote on candidates for all the elected roles. Much of this happens before the convention, but not all.
The 2022 Colorado convention, on its face, was a win for America First.
Lauren Boebert swept CD3. In a shock to CD4 delegates, Bob Lewis – a completely unknown candidate to those of us in CD4 – was nominated from the floor to primary Ken Buck. Buck is my congressman, and he only dissents from the establishment when the establishment has enough votes to win without him. Lewis took 62% of the vote and appeared ahead of Buck on the primary ballot. In CD5, El Paso County and the capital of the Military Industrial Complex, representative Doug Lamborn declined to participate in the assembly process, likely due to the fact that he is deeply unpopular with Republicans in his district. Candidates in Colorado can also petition onto the ballot, and Lamborn chose this route so that he didn’t need to face voters in his party.
These votes took place on the Friday before the full GOP voting population came together to select the statewide candidates, and voting members were feeling pretty good about their accomplishments. Thinking about Buck getting demolished by an unknown floor nomination still makes me happy.
Not So Fast! The Establishment Fights Back
Among the voting members of the party in 2022, candidates who openly campaigned on election integrity performed well, and those that tried to straddle the fence did not. Against the backdrop of free and fair elections, the votes for statewide candidates were an absolute disaster.
During the morning read out of the Rules Committee, several voting members made a valiant effort to prohibit the use of the party’s chosen “clicker devices” and vote the assembly on paper ballots. The controversy centered around the use of Infowhyse EdiVote100 electronic voting devices, or “clickers,” to record and tally the votes.
For the motion to have proceeded, the motion-maker needed to amend several rules in preparation for the call for paper ballots. They were prepared, had the paper ballots, and painstakingly moved to amend all the related rules. Unfortunately, the complexity involved made the entire motion process and reading convoluted and confusing as hell to the 3,772 delegates credentialed into the convention.
Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown — who was only elected to her position due to the last-minute support of the grassroots election activists in 2021 — and the Parliamentarian refused to allow debate on the paper ballots, and neglected to share with the class that all of the provisions outlined in the motion – watermarked paper ballots, clear ballot boxes, etc. – were onsite and ready for use. Rather, Brown framed the issue as an impossibility.
The motion for paper ballots failed two separate votes, and the clickers were in.
One delegate said about (the first) vote on paper ballots, “I didn’t understand what they were asking me to vote on! Then Kristi said we’d be there until midnight, and we wouldn’t know the results.”
A delegate from Weld county shared with me at the time that only 10 minutes had been allotted for the 3,772 delegates (representing thousands of Colorado citizens) to make motions; they used all that time fighting for paper.
Perhaps if they’d have been allowed one more motion, they could have raised how, according to the information available on the manufacturer website, these devices are unsupported, having been discontinued in July 2021.
When it was time to debut the discontinued and unsupported clickers, the result shocked the room with the very first vote: Colorado Governor. The energy in the room was consolidated in three candidates: Greg Lopez, Heidi Ganahl, and Danielle Neuschwanger, with Neuschwanger having the most supports in t-shirts and signs throughout the arena. When the vote came, people were shocked.
Lopez (34%)
Ganahl (32%)
Neuschwanger (27%)
Candidates need 30% of the vote to qualify for the ballot. According to the official results, Danielle Neuschwanger was 3% – or 112 votes – short of qualifying for the primary ballot. Immediately after the vote, volunteers at her table were bombarded with claims that the clickers didn’t work.
Widespread Technology Issues
This was the first of many votes, and stories of clicker issues spread through World Arena like a brush fire. At that moment, my reporting shifted from covering the votes to covering the clickers, and I started documenting the claims.
Unequal Treatment
Delegates from Routt County shared that they had to sign out their clickers, and they were reprimanded for swapping, or appearing to swap them. While that seemed to indicate that the serial numbers of the clickers were tied to the individual that signed them out, El Paso, Douglas, and Adams county delegates were just handing out the clickers with no tracking. El Paso County Chair Vickie Tonkins confirmed to me that, at least in her county, the clickers were not assigned by delegate or tracked.
Some of the clickers had serial numbers / barcodes and some didn’t. The reason for this difference is unclear, but the official answer I received from party officials was that it didn’t matter because the barcodes are unimportant.
Ineffective Training
In order to verify your vote after the fact, the only two numbers required are the three-digit label (usually on the front) and the “channel number,” which was displayed when pressing the Link button. According to the Teller Committee, these two numbers created a unique combination.
If you’ve ever tried to help your parents with technology, this explanation felt a lot like that, only with 3,770 additional (and confused) trainees and a really bitchy trainer.
According to the PowerPoint training given by Weld County Clerk and State Teller Committee Co-Chair Carly Koppes, it also mattered that the screen said “COUNTED.” Throughout the day, delegates were reporting that their clickers did not read “COUNTED” after voting. There didn’t appear to be any sort of recourse, help desk, or support for the clickers. Delegates with issues were largely out of luck unless they found Koppes’ arrogant smirk remotely helpful.
This is what was supposed to happen. If that wasn’t what happened for certain delegates, they were out of luck.
Clicker Shortages
Delegates and chairs from multiple counties shared with me that there were shortages of clickers. Reasons for the shortages varied.
Fremont County was missing one, Adams reported 10 clickers missing, but then shared the shortage was related to an issue with their delegate list. The official answer is that the GOP was short three clickers in total, because they just didn’t have any more.
El Paso County, the largest in Colorado, was given their clickers last of all counties in a process described as “chaotic and insecure” by integrity-focused delegates. This misstep delayed the start of voting for all counties. I was unable to get a clear answer on why the distribution and tracking processes varied by county.
Zero Clicker Security Controls
I also witnessed people with guest badges (not delegate badges) that were voting with clickers, found clickers lying around, and overheard a delegate confirm their choices with a person near them before handing them their clicker, hugging them goodbye, and leaving the arena.
In a system with integrity, none of those actions would be permissible, but there were zero controls in this process – the process by which Republican candidates ended up on the primary ballot.
Outcome Uncertain… Did We Win?
The clicker issues continued throughout the day and impacted every race, but at the end of the convention, with the exception of Danielle Neuschwanger, America First candidates still won the day.
Representative Ron Hanks (HD60) took 39% of the vote in the US Senate race and was the only candidate to qualify given the crowded field. Hanks faced Joe O’Dea, who petitioned onto the ballot, in the primary. Tina Peters took a 61% majority of the assembled delegates, and lesser known candidate Mike O’Donnell took the rest. O’Donnell made it onto the primary ballot, so Peters faced both him and Pam Anderson in the primary. Anderson was the Executive Director of Mark Zuckerberg’s Center for Tech and Civil Life, though she took a leave of absence to unsuccessfully run for Secretary of State.
The Primary & The General
Basically, the candidates that petitioned onto the ballot without facing voters in the assembly won the Republican primaries. These candidates didn’t campaign, but they “won” against the America First candidates with all of the enthusiasm, energy, and public support. Boebert, Buck, and Lamborn also won their primaries — and won the general — preserving the status quo, though Boebert had to endure a pretty extensive public shaming, I mean, recount due to her close margin.
Recount Theatre
The election issues in the primary were so significant that four candidates paid extortion-level fees for a machine recount of the election. Tina Peters was one of the four candidates, which meant that her recount took place in all 64 counties. The other candidates were from El Paso County, but the jurisdictions were split. County Clerk and Recorder candidate Peter Lupia and Coroner candidate Dr. Rae Ann Weber’s recounts were overseen by El Paso Clerk and Recorder Chuck Broerman. Recounts for State Senate candidate Lynda Zamora Wilson, along with Peters, were overseen by Secretary of State Jena Griswold.
The El Paso County recount – which included all four races – was a disaster from the start. Again, we had technology issues with vague explanations in our elections. The Logic and Accuracy Testing for the El Paso County recount yielded a ballot adjudication rate of ~57%, roughly 2,260 out of 4,000 ballots tested were sent to adjudication. According to the officials, the high ballot rejection rate was expected, and they declared as much before publicly calling the test a success.
According to people in the room, the high error rate was not expected. Officials scrambled to call in additional judges and watchers given the high volume of rejected ballots, all of which need to be adjudicated for each machine being tested.
After fixing nothing but declaring success, they conducted the recount. I attended part of it, and I witnessed – and captured on video available here – an election worker modifying original batch totals from the primary election to match those of the recount.
As someone who spent more than a decade working for an SEC audit firm, modifying original count documentation to match a secondary count is a massive red flag. Modifying original documentation to match a second count that is meant to verify that original documentation looks like a cover up. We recorded and reported it, and nothing happened. We were just ignored.
We also witnessed boxes with broken seals:
The issue of the broken seal was also ignored, though they did replace the box lid and reseal it, acting bothered and rolling their eyes as they did. In the end, they called the recount a success and patted themselves on the back for “our democracy.”
The candidates that refused to face the Republican voters during assembly went on to inexplicably win their primaries. Then they lost in the general and the communists retained control of Colorado.
What a Depressing Story
Why am I telling you this? Because every step in the process matters, and everyone has a role to play. Colorado is the election fraud test kitchen, but our communism is coming to your state soon, so learn from our example.
First, the precinct strategy should be the most important priority for Republican voters. The party has kept these roles empty because it served them, but they will fill them with neocons if necessary. If you are a Republican, and you want to put America First, then do your part and take a voting position in the party.
Second, do the work now to understand your state’s GOP candidate selection process; every state is different. How will the voting take place? Build the coalition in your party and make a plan now to select your party’s candidates on hand-marked paper ballots. Don’t wait until the convention to ask for paper ballots. Do it now. I doubt Colorado will try the clickers again, but mobile voting is just around the corner.
Third, whether or not you’re a Republican, you should sign up to work the elections in your precinct. Free and fair elections require eyes on. Take a shift if you can, and treat that job as though you’re doing it for your children.
You are.
Finally, don’t allow yourself to be distracted by candidates and campaigns to the neglect of your own duty in the process. Understand the narrative — and then ignore it and get to work.
I said at the top of this that politics is a team sport. What I should have said is that a republican form of government is a team sport. Politics is fanboying your quarterback so hard that you forget to line up and block.
Badlands Media articles and features represent the opinions of the contributing authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Badlands Media itself.
Ashe in America hosts Culture of Change on Badlands Media, Sundays at 6PM ET. If you enjoyed this contribution to Badlands Media, please consider checking out more of her work for free at Ashe in America.
Great article, thank you! As a new PCP in my county, mostly red in a very blue state, we just elected an America First Chair. He is amazing and seems to be tirelessly fighting the good fight. We recently passed a resolution rejecting the 2020 presidential election results and rejecting the COVID 19 bioweapon injections. There is a lot of infighting between the establishment and the America First parts of the party, and I see the America First part being more emboldened to speak out, because we can!! It's great to see. We also just shut down a drag time story hour at a public library by merely planning to be there as a peaceful protest. They cancelled before the event. It can be done, and I encourage everyone out there to just try. It makes a difference.
I was there and it was a mess. You described it well. First time and I am not looking forward to doing it again. I'm trying to do my part but it feels impossibly rigged against us.