The Accident as a Metaphor

On Monday, December 19th, I went down to the Colorado State Capital to witness the Electoral College vote as a reporter for TruthColorado.com. My wife, Gaye, my friend, Tony, and I went down on the light rail to beat the traffic and avoid the exorbitant cost of parking.  It was late afternoon on the drive back from Lincoln Station.  

By the time we made it to Elizabeth, the sun was going down.  It was frigid cold as we headed south on County Rd. 17-21 south.  When we got to the intersection of County Rd. 102 and 17-21, we came upon an accident that just happened.  To say that the scene was surreal would be an understatement.  It was absolutely still and before us were two totally destroyed vehicles with no signs of life.

Oddly enough, when we were going up the hill from where County Rd. 106 crosses 17-21 a couple of cars passed us heading north.  They blinked their lights and we shared amongst ourselves that it was probably a deer or a police vehicle up ahead.  Of course it was not.  They had just seen the accident and did not stop.  To their credit they at least alerted us that something was there to watch out for.  

When we saw the scene @ CR 17/21 and CR 102 we stopped and jumped into action.  There was never the slightest hesitation on our parts.  This had just happened and we all assumed that someone was probably severely injured or dead.  It was just that gruesome.  A huge grain truck had t-boned a small pickup and essentially cut it in two.  The large grain truck had rolled onto its side (driver’s side facing skyward) and was rapidly leaking fuel.  Tony ran to the pickup, Gaye started calling 911, and I headed for the semi. The next fifteen minutes will be indelibly etched in our minds for the rest of our lives.  That is about the time it took before Elbert County rescue workers on the scene. Considering everything, that was a very good response time and we were extremely thankful to see them all arrive.

The purpose of this blog is not to extol our actions at the scene of a devastating traffic accident.  Am I proud of my wife, my friend and myself?  Damned straight I am.  When it was all over, we had not only treated all three of the people for their injuries to one extent or the other, but we had made the emergency call to get professional help.  While we were first on the scene, we were not the only ones who eventually stopped.  Perhaps because others motorists saw regular citizens providing aid it gave them permission to join us. One retired gentleman, (who I would love to meet again just to shake his hand) had paramedic experience and he jumped right in with us.  Before it was all over, there were four or five of us covered with the blood of the accident victims. 

In today's world, our actions might be labeled cavalier, but in hindsight, everyone of us took that risk for our own personal reasons. Of course the professionals come prepared and had the necessary protection. For Gaye, Tony and me, who discussed it after we headed home to clean up, it was just this simple: none of us were willing to  stand by and let a young man drown in his own blood from broken ribs and a collapsed lung or let the truck driver wander aimlessly, clueless in shock, and half-blinded by blood, across the meadow.  Those three victims needed help and we felt, we knew,  it was the right thing to do.

 

There may have been twenty people at the accident site before we left working in concert with one another to help the victims, whom they may or may have not known, survive a tragedy. Everyone there, with the exception of the EC sheriffs, were volunteers, and even some of the sheriffs were off- duty.  Not once was anyone heard to ask if the victims were Catholics, Jews or atheists.  Nobody checked to see if anybody who was providing assistance voted for Clinton, for Trump or Calvin Coolidge for that matter. Nobody cared at that moment whether they were members of the NRA or MoveOn.org. 

The reason that nobody asked such questions at that crucial moment was because nobody was being controlled by the media, a political group, a lobbyist or anyone else for that matter.  For that brief period of time this group of people had a common purpose.  We sat aside any differences that may have otherwise divided us for the common purpose of helping three injured people at the side of the road in crucial, life-threatening  conditions that we may have never even known existed some fifteen minutes earlier.  We were being humans first...and pawns in a game second.

The sooner this nation comes to its senses and stops letting divisive forces keep us from our true values, the better we will all be.  Let this accident serve as a metaphor.  All that should really matter is that we treat our neighbors as we would want to be treated.  Be empathetic in the moment and trust your moral compass when the need arises.  In my opinion, we will all be better for trusting in the goodness of the human heart.

I’ll Take "Questions that are answered, 'Hell Yes!' for $500, Alex."

I’ll Take "Questions that are answered, 'Hell Yes!' for $500, Alex." 

Is the Pope Catholic? Do bears crap in the woods? Did Vladimir Putin’s interference in the 2016 general election tip the scales for Donald Trump? 

About 70,000 votes in three key states sent Donald Trump to Washington.  Hillary conceded even knowing that she had significantly beaten Trump in the popular vote.  That is the way it works, because the popular vote does not win the United States presidential election.  The Electoral College picks our President.  Mr. Trump got 306 electoral votes and broke the threshold of 270 needed to win the prize.  End of story? No, just the beginning, actually.

The United States C.I.A. has determined beyond a shadow of a doubt that Vladimir Putin, in combination with state-sponsored hackers and Wikileaks, conspired to insert themselves into our election in an attempt to get Donald Trump elected president.  Our president-elect says that that is deceptive and untrue.  Nothing could have swayed his landslide victory!  

Trump is a real estate tycoon with no credentials in US or foreign intelligence.  He does not even want to be annoyed with pesky intelligence briefings, and yet he says with certainty that the C.I.A. is full of bogus information.  What kind of ego-driven man takes his own hunches as gospel over the entire intelligence agency of the most powerful country in the world?

So let’s cut to the chase and look at why I believe that the election was handed to Trump by Putin:  

•128 million people voted in  this election;

•Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a little over 2% or roughly 2,800,000 votes;  

•HRC lost the electoral college vote based on a victory margin of 70,000;  

•If you divide that number (70,000) by 128,000,000,  that means that the margin of victory was by a mere .054 of 1% of the population;

•If distributed with a slight modification of 1/500 of 1% it would have meant Hillary Clinton would have won the presidency.  

Granted, it was a larger margin than that in the three swing states Clinton needed to beat Trump, but it is ludicrous to say that the Russian government, traditionally viewed as our archenemy, spent all that time, money and human resources, to garner only a tiny fraction of 1% of our total voting population for the guy they wanted to win.  No, they went in as hard as they could and swung for the fences.  They knew that tarnishing Hillary Clinton with false information and fake news to, among others, partisan players at the FBI, would stir up trouble and further divide the Democrats, some of whom thought Bernie Sanders should have won the nomination.  And it worked. 

Trump has not been shy about trying to butter up the ties between the Russians and the USA.  He relentlessly went after Clinton on the emails that never materialized and he even called upon the Russians in public to search for them!  It was reported early on in the campaign that Trump had a relationship with Putin...and then he denied it.  Of course there are the verifiable details that Trump has selected his cabinet members who have deeply troubling financial ties to Russian oil. There are a plethora of remarks on the record of Trump praising the leadership of Putin.  He has even gone on the record as saying that Putin is a better leader than his own President, Barack Obama.  There was a time, presumably back in the days to which Donald Trump wishes us to return, that a remark like that would be regarded as treasonous. Suffice it to say, while Trump extolls the virtues of this dangerous world leader, millions of people around the world have felt the Russian lash.

These are dangerous times in which we live.  Putin has involved himself in Russia's oil production in such a manner that by some estimates, Putin’s personal wealth is now at $85 billion.  He is not even trying to hide any of this.  This is the man Trump views as a strong world leader worthy of praise.  

Putin’s critics, the band  Pussy Riot, went to jail for three years for being critical of their praiseworthy leader.  How many of you reading this would have enjoyed watching Obama jail those who questioned his birthplace or calling his family members monkeys?  The precedent (or "president," if you spell like our president-elect in his Tweets) of embracing the values of Vladimir Putin, the man who our entire intelligence community say personally directed an attack on our recent presidential race, is frighteningly misguided. 

So Alex, “HELL YES!” Vlad helped the candidate he wanted to become president to win the prize and no, I did not put that in the form of a question.  You know why, Alex? Because diluting American values downward toward the values of a Russian despot is not a game I wish to play. 

Mr. Baca Teaches a Lesson on Courage

 

On Monday, December 19th, I went down to the State Capital today to watch the nine electors for the State of Colorado cast their votes for for the US President.  Before it was over nine votes were cast for Hillary Clinton, but it was not without some drama.  You see, before the proceedings even took place, Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams had stated that if any of the electors broke rank and decided to vote for a candidate other than HRC, they would be dismissed and replaced with someone who would. He even went so far as to draft a new oath for the proceedings to highlight the fact that if they did not vote for the person who won the popular vote that the person would be committing perjury.

Let that information sink in for a moment:  Williams, a Republican, interceded on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton, who has not contested her loss, would have opposed the actions of SOS Williams even though it meant she would have received one less electoral vote.  

And then, up stepped a true American patriot. One brave, twenty-four year old, former  Marine Micheal Baca, stood his ground to defend his right to vote his conscience and proceeded to vote for Governor John Kasich. This was the first time that had happened in Colorado history.  Baca became the first electoral college voter to cast his ballot for someone other than for the winner of Colorado’s  U.S. Presidential contest. 

Despite his stand, Mr. Baca was admonished by Secretary of State Williams who then dismissed him as an elector and called for a replacement.  Almost as if it were planned (It was, by the way.), a volunteer, Celeste Landry, stepped up and was sworn in by Colorado Supreme Court Justice Nancy Rice. Williams did this as the huge crowd of citizen witnesses, (almost all of whom were Democrats who voted for Clinton), loudly demanded that he (Williams) either resign or face recall. 

Unless you understand the insider politics of the Electoral College, this all probably seems a bit odd.  What Mr. Baca was trying to do was to reinstate the notion that electors could remain unbound and vote for whomever they chose.  That was the way the Founding Fathers believed that the American people could keep a despot from stealing the office of the President.  When Colorado, or any state, binds its Electoral College delegates to vote in lock step with the popular vote of the state, it reduces the meaningfulness of the Electoral College vote to a useless charade.  Why even have the vote at all  if voters can only choose what has been chosen already?  This makes no sense whatsoever. And, if that is the case, why not scrap the thing all together? 

We have just witnessed an election where the loser won the popular vote by nearly a 3% margin.  I get it.  Hillary did not garner the electoral tally of 270 votes, and so she lost.  I am not saying give it to her, nor were the hundreds of people in attendance at the Capitol yesterday.  We all knew about the electoral threshold going in and HRC did not clear the mark.  

But what purpose does the Electoral College serve if we continue to strip electors of their choice to pick whomever they wish to become President of the United Stated? The Electoral College has become a tool for political strategists to undermine the popular vote…period. The will of the majority be damned.  Just find the right path to electoral votes and you do not even have to win the popular vote.  Lock the electors into having to vote "winner takes all" and it makes this a sure thing that cannot be challenged.  

I leave you with this final thought:  If we are going to continue to use this adulterated system of electing our United States President that has long strayed from its origins, can we at least make it entertaining?  What about dressing the electors in lavish costumes and have them sing outlandish show tunes during the ceremony.  At least we would be entertained once every four years.

 

 

This is the Dawning of the Age of Nefarious

I want my money back.  The singing group "The Fifth Dimension" promised us in 1969 that this was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius(AOA). Technically speaking, you have Eras (i.e. Mesozoic Era) Periods (i.e. Jurassic Period) followed by Epochs (i.e. Early Jurassic Epoch), etc.  Another word for Era is Age!  Mesozoic Era is Latin for Age of the Reptiles.  The damned thing lasted 186 million years.  The Temptations boasted that love was supposed to guide the stars for an age.  Lets go conservative here and say that an age is at least a minimum 100 million years.  Fact of the matter is that we got maybe ten years of love and 186 million years of giant freaking lizards?  How is that fair?  Even astrologists said we were supposed to get 2,160 years of peace and love. Instead, we now find our world entering into the Age of Nefarious (AON), and to tell you the truth, I pray it ends before it ever climbs out of the cradle to spread its corporate message to mankind.

This is a world turned upside down. The AOA promise came after the darkest parts of the Cold War when we were told by leaders of both political parties that there was a communist lurking behind every tree and in every woodpile. I remember watching propaganda films in school of bald headed Russian children in uniform swearing allegiance to the flag of the Soviet Union, replete with its symbol of all that was unholy, the hammer and sickle.  We were fighting communists in the Korean War and in the Vietnam War.  We had witch hunts in Congress over finding communist sympathizers.  Nothing could be worse than being a communist and we were taught the phrase, "Better dead than red."  The Hippies and the war- weary children of the draft stood up and said that they had experienced enough of that message and the AOA was their vision...only it was never to be.

We are entering into an age where facts do not seem to matter.  Our leaders are all well versed in the art of leadership by news cycle.  Hyperbole is the coin of the realm. Twitter has replaced thoughtful editorial opinion.  Experience is a hindrance to successful governance. That whirring sound that you hear in the background is coming from the graveyards where millions of bodies from my father's generation are spinning at the news that a foreign country has been shown to have involved itself in a United State’s presidential election, the outcome of which was razor thin, if not disputable by the popular vote. They would be asking themselves for what principles did they make such great sacrifices. 

If you think that I am making some partisan pitch here and condemning the Republicans for bringing us a President Trump, I can assure you I am not.  The Democrats outnumber conservatives in this nation by a wide margin and they are the ones who did not stand up for what they say they believe in.  No, this AON is the result of people on both sides of the political aisle becoming intellectually dull and lazy.  We do not want to go the extra mile to find the truth of a situation, preferring instead information that assuages what we want to believe no matter how ridiculous it is.  We no longer read the whole article, check the source or even the date.  We have become the generation that only reads the headlines, be they true or false.

Few people today actually understand the oppression that caused our nation to be formed.  Our grievances today are more likely to be centered around poor cell phone coverage or not being able to sleep because of a barking dog. Our forefathers dealt with an occupying force that would toss you out of your own farmhouse, slaughter your livestock and have their way with your wife and daughters. That is the definition of false equivalence. False equivalence is the tool that the masterminds in corporate media and our political parties use to fire up the masses to vote.  Misplaced anger sends us to the polls in numbers far less than what they should be because our leaders know that in this age of intellectual apathy (AON), only the "pissed off" will ever show up to the polls...and that they are the easiest to control.

So do I really want my $3.99 back?  Not really.  I just want our country and the world to be a place where all men are created equal; a place where my neighbor values me not by the color of my skin or my political affiliation but rather by my desire to have open and tolerant dialogue about any issue under the sun.  - Acceptance, diversity and people who constantly strive for truths -  I will just listen to the Fifth Dimension and dream of what might have been. 

The Elbert County Christmas Carol Development Style.

We have been down this road so many times, I know it by heart.  Come January we will have a small, minority Democratic party and we will swear in three brand new Republican commissioners.  The local GOP officials are proud of themselves and slapping themselves on the back for all of the "out-maneuvering" they were able to pull off and once again put the dastardly liberal left back in the closet until the need for a scapegoat in our county presents itself.  That is, when the Dems find themselves in demand out here in Elbert County.  I like to refer to it by the name of one of my favorite party games as a child, "Pin the Tail on the Donkey."  I had friends in the room at Spring Valley the night of the election, and to say that the Grand Old Party bosses were proud of themselves is an understatement.  Trounced, sacked, whipped, shellacked, and even a few more NSFW descriptions of the vanquishing of the Democratic commissioner candidates were trotted out for all to hear.  And you know what? As the former vice-chair of the Elbert County Democrats, I am fine with all of that for a couple of pretty important reasons.

The first reason is that this election was actually the most atypical of its kind in a couple of generations. Rural America, frightened to death that someone was finally going to change America and move it to the extreme left, voted in record numbers to preserve, what I always hear as, the "rural lifestyle."  Secondly, Elbert County ran the table. I worked on the election at the request of our County Clerk and Recorder to represent the Democrats and I actually introduced the County Election Manager, Rhonda Braun to the person who became the lead volunteer for the Republicans.  That is the way it should be.  Our bipartisan election team registered more new voters than we ever have in Elbert County's history.  We bent over backwards to get every person who was eligible to vote, signed up and in line.  The result was predictable and now we are here ready to begin anew.  Uh...erm. Maybe not.

You see, as a person who has been actively working on issues of growth, water preservation, stopping land grabs, and promoting the building of schools for over twenty years, I see a few things that others who are not so active might not.  The late Ray Wells, of the Superslab debacle, once warned me almost twelve years ago that, when big investors finally came to Elbert County, there would be no stopping them. They would take whatever they wanted.  Wells never built a foot of highway or a yard of railroad tracks in his life, but he invested hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to promote a highway and a rail line that did not solve a single transportation problem along the Front Range. What most people forget or never understood was that Wells was a renowned water district specialist.  In the winter of 2005 he was down at the Colorado state legislature trying to change the definition of what a railroad might mean in legal terms, when citizens finally figured out that we were about to get uprooted by a hundred year old wagon law!  He wanted the definition of a railroad to include, but not be limited to, things like coal slurry pipelines, water pipelines, gas pipelines, telecommunications lines, etc.  By the time we learned what he was up to he had made claims for railroad corridors all over the Front Range. But, because of incredible activism by thousands of bipartisan Coloradoans, that plan was foiled. This is a long way around making a simple statement:  Ray Wells was a visionary water speculator who had designs on our water rights and the greedy goal of building water pipelines.

Jump back to today. Here’s what has transpired:

• We now have two commissioners who were not even around when we faced the Superslab issue in 2005. 

• "Big Money" has arrived at the gates of the county and wants to build a very large and very thirsty development just north of County Road 158.  
• Ed Ehmann, Tim Craft and Kurt Schlegel have met more than once together outside of the Elbert County, but surely they did not discuss water (tongue firmly planted in cheek).  

Here’s some more:

• The EC Planning Commission dropped a completely bogus truth oath requirement at their public meeting on November 15, 2016. The planning commission announced, "Speculative opinions and general expressions of fear of potential increases in crime, traffic, or impacts on property values do not constitute competent evidence."  That also is a pile of road apples. 
• Two of the newly elected commissioners are using the oft-used expression, "bring the rooftops," to help our financial woes without once mentioning that the Independence development has not undergone a thorough Costs of Community Services (COCS) analysis and that it is working on the expired Bandera permit from seven years ago. Nothing much has changed since then, they told us, and so we need to trust them. 
• The players behind the elected officials who are all shiny and new have not changed. That is what they are really saying and it might be something to think about.

We are not starting from scratch here.  The same people who have advised the county officials to drive the finances into ground like a tent peg are still with us.  If the voters who showed up and registered in huge numbers at the polls wanted things to be exactly as they were before the election then the changes you will see will be epic, but maybe not very good for those of us who live out here and want that so called "rural" lifestyle.  I have said it many time and you can look it up: Ninety-eight percent of us in Elbert County are on well and septic.  If we do not hold the new Independence development to the highest of standards, we will all pay dearly. 

 

Remember these few facts if you take anything from this article at all:

1  The water beneath our feet has greater value than anything that we can build above ground.  

2    The price of water is growing so high along the Front Range that any builder who can float a development proposal knows that any pipeline they build to service it (said development) has a potential value greater than the homes that they build upon the land.  And that is why the likes of Kurt Schlegel and Diane Miller always show up at these clandestine meetings with county officials.  (Oh, did I mention that Miller has worked with Ray Wells, Robert Lembke, and Karl Nyquist on water deals in Colorado for years?)

3     Pipes carry water out of the county as fast as they carry it back into the county.  No matter at what price you sell your water, it will cost you much more to buy it back after  our aquifers are depleted. 

It does not have to be this way.  Our new Elbert County BOCC could actually open up the process and allow the residents of the county to have a voice in the coming development.  Our county could bring development and still protect our water.  Believe me when I say that the water is our bargaining chip and they need us more than we need them.  Once the water is gone  we will live here on the developers’ terms and their terms only.  

I ask the Republicans, who make up the majority of this county, to step up and do the right thing:  Guide this set of new commissioners.  In every election for the past twenty years   the Republicans voted in a new set of leaders, gave them the keys, and then did not tell them what their expectations were.  It has just been  (R) blind trust and, "See you in four years!"  

The ghost of Ray Wells is speaking to us all now complete with rattling chains and spooky music.  Please heed his warning:  "When big investors finally come to Elbert County, there will be no stopping them."   Make a difference: Speak up, make your presence known, and help protect the only resource in Elbert County that’s worth a damn.  Pun intended.

C'mon Bob! Give it a rest.

It was my unfortunate luck to wake up this morning and see another long diatribe sent out by Robert Rowland.  Just when I thought we had heard the last from this misinformed master of hyperbole, he sticks his head up out of the brackish green waters of his pond and croaks another loathsome song about the evils of his arch nemesis, Jill Duvall. 

Rowland is incapable of understanding why people listen to anybody other than himself. He does not understand that he is the reason people look to citizens like Jill for information.  Every possible malady in this county is attributed by Commissioner Rowland to a leftist agenda from a party which has not had an elected commissioner in office since Bob Hall.  People who were not even born when Mr. Hall was in office just voted in the last election.  

Your party has had a couple of decades to get this growth issue well in hand, Mr. Rowland.  We just voted in the next four years of Republican leadership, Bob.  When are you going to realize that political parties do not make positive change?  Leaders make positive change.  Following your logic, we should be looking at Weld County in the rear view mirror as we put our pedal to the metal to pass Douglas County.  Face it, Mr. Rowland, your legacy in this county's history is that you will go down as the guy who accomplished little except bringing the term "ethics violations" to the forefront of Elbert County vernacular.

I have been deeply involved in the movement to make people aware of water issues since well before I moved to Elbert County nearly twenty years ago.  Gaye and I have tried to help people understand how clean water aquifers work.  We have helped hundreds of people gain control of their water rights by showing them how to adjudicate them.  We do not always agree with the reasons people choose to adjudicate their water rights, but we understand that the more people become involved, the longer this finite resource will be around in the future. Ours is not an agenda of no growth. Growth is inevitable. Ours is an agenda of smart growth that allows a voice to everyone because the rooftops are coming.

 Almost everyone in this county is dependent upon groundwater.  That is truth.  Anything that puts our groundwater in jeopardy or adversely impacts it is going to be scrutinized by those who wish to live here.  That is not hyperbole. There is no political affiliation when it comes to the need for water to survive.  

If Mr. Rowland believes that Jill Duvall is being asked just to speak to groups of predominantly "leftist Democratic" property owners, then he is delusional.  Drive County Road 158, Mr. Rowland.  Look at the multitude of signs opposing the  Independence development.  See how many people are flying a Gadsden flag to which you so proudly cling as a Tea Party advocate.  See how many Trump signs are still remaining in yards. I dare say I did not see a single HRC sign. 

People do not care about your unfounded fear of Jill Duvall. She is strong enough to stand toe to toe and fight for what she believes, and believe me when I say it comes with a hefty price tag of abusive commentary from the likes of you and your minions.

We have had an election.  To nobody's surprise, the Democrats got trounced here in the county.  Will it be more of the same?  Will it be a time of prosperity?  If the new EC commissioners listen to their constituents and explore development with respectful caution, then we may be on our way out of the ditch.  If they just listen to the developers and ignore the property owners who have legitimate concerns about water, traffic, and the knowledge that growth does not always fill empty coffers, then we may be in for four more years of blaming Jill Duvall for everything.  At least we won't have Mr. Rowland preaching from a commissioner's office about his virtuous tenure as a successful elected politician...so it has to be a little bit better, right?

Elbert County Planning Commission or Sponge Bob... for which would you swear an oath?

Several people wanted me back on the Elbert County Citizens page. One even went so far as to add me back without me knowing it. I guess I did not realize that was possible, but hey, you live and you learn. This was my first post upon my return to the page and so I decided  I would  get off on the wrong foot for my opening salvo. 

Two things need to be said this morning. Number one, and I suggest you check me out on this with the State of Colorado, the Planning Commission is not a courtroom and its members have no right to hold a "swearing in" procedure. They are merely a group of citizens who give advice to the commissioners on planning and development. I swore an oath as an elections official because I handled sensitive information. I had a background check done to insure I was not a criminal. All of that was perfectly acceptable and necessary. Nobody should agree to anything that gives the false impression that a body has more power than it does. If I ever attend another Planning Commission meeting, I will swear into their meeting when they agree to pledge allegiance to Sponge Bob Square Pants. The second thing is that the Planning Commissioners do not own the truth. They own their own perception of the truth. To suggest that the "Speculative opinions and general expressions of fear of potential increases in crime, traffic, or impacts on property values do not constitute competent evidence" is to suggest that their unprofessional opinions are the law. People have every right to speak their hearts. They, after all, are the reason we have representation in government not vice versa. They have every obligation to listen to the people even if it runs counter to their preconceived notions. This is an insult and a travesty. The new commissioners need to stop this run away train before it goes another mile. Remember, there is no political affiliation when people stand up to protect their homes. I do not know who decided that this was a good idea, but it needs to be eliminated before the county finds itself in yet another newsworthy scandal that leads to unnecessary litigation of which it is certain the PC (and thereby Elbert County) will lose.  Haven't we learned anything?

A few thoughts on the 2016 Election

It is never easy to lose.  Some losses are more traumatic than others and in the case of this most recent general election some people are grieving in a manner that is consistent with the death of a close family member.  It is with that fact in mind that I ask that all of my friends on either side of the political aisle remember that it is never okay to harass or belittle a person who is in a state of grief.  You would not tell a person whose brother just died to "Suck it up." Nobody would condone people making fun of a person who just lost a family pet or a close friend.  But that is exactly what is transpiring all over this nation of ours.  There is nothing good that can become of this callous behavior.  It needs to stop.

There are those who want to be congratulated upon their successes.  They fought hard and they won.  It is understandable and it reasonable for those who have campaigned and prevailed to want acknowledgement for their efforts.  To those people I say with no reservation, "Congratulations."   The people have spoken and you deserve your chance to fulfill your campaign promises of clear and transparent leadership.  To those who lost,  I wish to thank you for your participation in democracy.  It was designed and always meant to be a system where opposition is not only expected but necessary and you have brought that balance to the table.

We reside in rural America.  This election was handed to the Trump Campaign by our demographic. While pollsters and media types were busily monitoring the temperature of urban America and completely ignoring the significant number of citizens living in places like Elbert County,  Mr. Trump courted us.  Rural America, a group who is often marginalized or completely ignored, stepped into the ring and delivered the telling blow and almost nobody saw it coming on the left.

Elbert County voted in unprecedented numbers.  I worked to help officiate this campaign as I have for so many elections in the past.  This new system of voting in Colorado helped to bring this election home for the Republicans.  It is almost impossible to corrupt the vote count despite campaign rhetoric to the opposite.  It allows for reactivation of those who have become inactive at the polls.  It also provides for immediate registration for new voters just before they cast their ballots.  Elbert County sent out over 17,000 ballots to eligible voters this election cycle, yet far in excess of 18,000 are now eligible to vote after election day.  That speaks volumes about the power of being able to motivate people to join the system and not suppress the participation.  Many people do not trust government to fairly adjudicate elections, but here in Colorado they have just proven that the system works.

I wish all of our local politician the very best in their upcoming terms of service.  I hope that they do not fall into the trap of believing that there is such a thing as a political mandate.  While the results were absolutely conclusive in the local election, the lines between Republican and Democratic viewpoints blurred here in the county over high density development, water and the use of public funds.  Voters, many of whom were angry, voted a straight ticket.  That skews the impact of local issues and it will serve our newly elected commissioners well to remember that water is lifeblood and all of our local issues of any import whatsoever ultimately return to this fact.  If any commissioner is foolish enough to not heed this warning and moves capriciously to sell water from this county, the backlash will be from citizens across the political spectrum and not just from the Democrats.  Water is not just for donkeys, it is important to elephants as well. 

Security at the Polls

I want to take a moment and go on the public record:

I am working as a volunteer in Elbert County on the 2016 General Election.  I have always believed that helping with elections is my civic duty. To me, there is nothing more important than to protect the integrity of our elections.  Each election cycle I am honored to take the oath as an election official  to do my job honestly and without bias. I feel privileged to work next to friends whom I know to hold opposing political viewpoints than my own.  I applaud each and every citizen who is dedicated to this, the American way.

I am certain that the election process in Elbert County is being run fairly and that there is no reason to fear for the validity of this upcoming election.  Elbert County Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder and Election Manager Rhonda Braun have, to the best of my knowledge, provided the time and resources necessary for a fair election and have provided a bipartisan environment that will meet the stringent requirements put upon the county by the Secretary of State’s Office for the State of Colorado.

That said, I want to point out that the 2016 election is probably one of the most contentious in modern times.  This election, poll watchers, registered and trained by the state, will be at the polls to observe this process in unprecedented numbers.  They will be required to follow strict guidelines and will be doing a very important job this election cycle.  They will be helping us to maintain faith in the American electoral process.  As I have pointed out in a previous article, it is not likely but it is possible, due to the heated nature of our presidential contest, for the polling places to experience turmoil.  There have been articles both in print and played on television in regards to these concerns and I believe you, the reader, have seen them, too. 

This year both of the two major political parties in Colorado have expressed concerns that the full service voter centers where people are working must have adequate security in place in the off-chance that something might go wrong. I brought these concerns to both Dallas Schroeder and Rhonda Braun.  I did this only after speaking to several other judges who had questions as to the safety of the volunteer poll workers.  To their credit, our election officials addressed these concerns and asked Sheriff Shayne Heap to provide at least two  deputies on election day to cover the two remote Voter Service Centers.  It was reported to me that the request was denied due to budgetary constraints.

Mr. Schroeder has no way to compel the Sheriff’s Office to provide security, but it was discussed that members of the Elbert County Sheriff’s Posse would be asked to come to these sights to help poll watchers feel more secure.  While I have great respect for these volunteers, from a legal standpoint, I do not believe these citizens can do much more than give verbal admonishment to a potential disrupter and then call the Sheriff’s Office for backup. Sheriff Heap did say that their officers would stop by and check in with the poll workers. It is my fervent hope that this will be sufficient coverage.

It has been a long standing tradition here in Elbert County that at community gatherings, especially where a contentious issue is being addressed, that uniformed law enforcement officers are in attendance for purposes of security.  I do not know why this election does not break the threshold of the need for security or if it is purely a budgetary situation that makes it impossible, but the issue has been discussed. Perhaps, in defense of the Sheriff’s Office, their opinion is consistent with law enforcement offices in both Pueblo and Colorado Springs as is shown in the following televised clip. The inclusion of the Sheriff’s Office was not part of the Elbert County election training as was the case in Pueblo and the Springs and that may be something to discuss for future elections.

http://www.krdo.com/news/colorado-springs/safety-and-security-apart-of-election-judge-training/130006622

I do feel it is important to go on record as saying that the request for security was made.  I believe that it would be terrible if any harm occurs to any volunteer or voter in Elbert County because of a lack of security.  I believe that it needed to be pointed out that this was a topic that was raised before voting ever commenced in this general election so that the issue can be addressed for future election cycles. This is my opinion alone and not meant to reflect any official position of the Elbert Democratic Party.

Zombie Apocalypse, Poll Watching and Voter Fraud

Despite a recent televised report that dead people were voting in Colorado, our state is actually recognized as having one of the most secure voting systems in the United States.  So how did this report of political activism within the community of the dearly departed occur?  It is really very simple, and almost every case can be attributed to several fairly innocuous causes which will be outlined later in this blog entry. Of course there are those few actual cases where fraud has occurred and nobody, including this author, should ever turn a blind eye to fraudulent voting.  Voter fraud is a serious crime, and anyone caught doing it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  However, the zombie election apocalypse is not upon us, and once you see the steps that are taken to preserve the integrity of the vote in the Centennial State, I believe you will feel less inclined to worry.

I have worked as an election official in one capacity or the other in almost every one of the elections in Elbert County for well over a decade.  The one exception was the time that I ran for District 3 County Commissioner, and even that year, 2008, I had to be very aware of election laws and procedures so that I did not violate any campaign laws in the state.  Every year, Colorado has moved steadily toward elections that insure that the most people possible will find it easy to register, that the vote is convenient, and that every vote will count.  There is also every step taken along the way to insure that the election team is comprised of a balance of the two major political parties and that every person on the team not only takes an oath to follow the rules but also passes a criminal background check every year.

These three items are very important:  First is that Colorado permits online voter registration. It is very easy to do and the Secretary of State’s web site is simple to navigate. You'll need a Colorado State Driver’s License or ID card issued by the Department of Revenue to register online at https://www.sos.state.co.us/voter-classic/pages/pub/home.xhtml. Secondly, Colorado is one of only three states utilizing a vote-by-mail system for all elections. And finally, if you decide you would rather vote in person, voters in Colorado are required to present a valid form of identification at the polls.

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/vote/acceptableFormsOfID.html.  There are a lot of people out there who are working under the misconception that Colorado requires no valid form of identification to vote, but the opposite is true.  In a state where the voter rolls are comprised of properly identified and eligible citizens, it is unlikely that an unscrupulous  person could obtain a valid ballot, and even if he did, a long list of steps that scrutinizes each and every ballot cast is the next stop on the journey to having a vote count...and that invalid ballot would be caught.

Elbert County’s election office has been working on this year’s election since the beginning of the year.  In order for you to get your ballot, the rolls are checked to see if you reside here,  to see that you are an active voter and eligible to receive a ballot… oh, and alive!  Normally when you die, either the family or someone who moves into the deceased person’s vacated home will send the ballot in and mark that the person has passed away.  Those ballots are returned to the election office and those names are removed on the voter rolls.  If there is a family member living in the home that has the same name as the recently departed and they vote the wrong ballot by mistake, sometimes this gives the false appearance that we have a case of voter fraud.  That is the situation that occurred  most often in the investigation into Colorado having "dead voters."

But the State of Colorado has identified a few cases of actual fraud.  In a few isolated cases, someone  received a ballot that belonged to a person who had recently passed away in addition to their own ballot.  They voted both ballots. This is easy enough to do at first blush.  They just faked a signature on the deceased person’s ballot and voted a second time.  That is a felony and easily discovered by the voting team at the county.  You see, every person who resides in the county does business with the county government.  On any occasion that you send in a legal paper, file a government form, obtain a license,  register to vote in the county or send in a ballot, your signature is photographed and put on file.  Every ballot that is cast in this or any election goes through a process called signature verification.  If you volunteer to work on the election, the state gives you training on signature verification. The signature on every ballot is checked against copies of your actual signature or signatures on file by two people (one from each of the two major political parties).  If the signature does not match, the voter is notified and told their vote will not count unless they come in and rectify the signature problem.  That is really hard to do when you are dead.

Lots of signatures do not get accepted.  Sometimes a signature changes due to injury or illness.  There is a provision by where a voter can vote their ballot and obtain a witness signature to solve that problem, but if there is no witness there will be no vote and the ballot is returned. Sometimes people just scribble something like they do at a credit card machine; we’ve all seen that.  If the verifiers can’t read it, the ballot will get kicked out and returned for correction.  Have you ever seen a zombie’s handwriting?  It ain’t pretty and they are always pretty upset when they are asked to come in to fix the problem.

There are common mistakes.  Lots of couples mistakenly vote their partner's ballot.  Again, it is common, but it is not fraudulent.  It is so common that the state allows signatures of a household to be batched together.  If the verifiers see the wrong name on a ballot, the first thing they check is to see if there are other voters in the household.  If there are other voters, the ballot is pulled until the other ballots from the household show up and it can be shown there is another person who made the same mistake.  Problem solved!  

There is one caveat that is worth mentioning here:  Sometimes a parent or spouse sees that a household member did not sign their ballot and they think it is okay to sign for the family member whose signature is missing.  Do not do that.  You will almost certainly be called in to explain the situation because the verifiers will catch it.  That is right on the edge of fraud even though the intent was benign and it can be very embarrassing.  In defense of the zombies living (more accurately non-living) in the county...they almost never make this mistake unless a family crypt is involved.

Why did I write this piece on voting you might ask.  It is simple, really.  In this arguably the most contentious election of my lifetime, there has been lots of talk about voting being rigged.  There have been calls from candidates to not trust the election officials and requests to turn out in large numbers to watch these untrustworthy poll workers so they won’t commit crimes against the candidates.  Well, if you do decide that is what you must do to protect the integrity of the vote, Colorado has made provisions for you to do just that.  We have one of the most open systems in the country, but you do have to sign up and get permission.  

If this is your cup of tea, by all means contact the Elbert County Clerk and Recorders Office and sign up.  Be aware that while you will be given access to every station in the voting process, you will only have one designated person to whom you may make comments or ask questions.  This is done to help the poll workers stay focused on the exacting work in front of them. Signature verification does take concentration.  Be also aware this will be a long and possibly boring task, so wear comfortable shoes and consider bringing a thermos of coffee to stay awake. Don't plan on taking any phone calls while you are in the election area.  

With the dedicated bipartisan volunteers operating a voting system deemed to be one of the most secure in the nation, there will be little to do or say.  We are a friendly group, and if I might brag, easy on the eyes.  We welcome your participation, but cannot guarantee the entertainment factor...that is, unless the zombies show up to straighten up a signature issue.  Happy voting.

Elbert County Citizens’ Zone - The Bipartisan Meeting is Happening!

With apologies to the late, great, Rod Serling

“You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension—a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into the Elbert County Citizens’ Zone.”

If you have a feather handy, you may want to hold on to it for just such an occasion. You will actually be able to use your feather to topple over many of us long standing pundits of the Elbert County political scene who would never have believed any of this as a possibility.  What am I talking about?  Well, in case you have not heard the amazing news, Marlene Groves, the founder of the Facebook group Citizens by and for Elbert County has convinced all six candidates running for county commissioners positions into participating in a bipartisan, “meet the candidates” event.

This is something that has not happened in many years in Elbert County politics, mainly due to the policies of the former Executive Board of the Elbert County Republicans. Republican leaders have held for some time now a logical position that because the Republicans have held a significant majority and there has little press coverage or opportunity by minority candidates to get their message out to the voting public, it made no sense to engage with the other parties. Logical from the standpoint that it was the Republicans who stood to lose votes if they were not required to engage the opposition whatsoever.  Unfortunately, logic founded in a slow changing demographic does not always produce the best candidates even when the winning party is a foregone conclusion.

I say this does not always produce the best candidates, not as a complaint but more as an observation of the county’s downward financial spiral and its lack of modernization of infrastructure that has become the trend in Elbert County government over the past decade.  The Elbert County Republicans have not put forward candidates who have had much training or experience in the past few election cycles even when bright, qualified candidates were available to them.  It appears for all intents and purposes that loyalty to the local GOP was more desirable  than experience or trained qualities.  But it is a tribute to the rank and file of the local Republicans that change is in the wind.

The Facebook page Citizens by and for Elbert County  was started not by the local Democrats or Independents of Elbert County, but by a staunch Republican woman who recognizes that everybody deserves a voice in local governance.  Not only that but the administration of this  group page embraced people of all political stripes to participate.  This was a move of confidence on the part of their leadership.  They are fully aware of the dominance of the Republicans, but they also realize that ideas, good and bad, are not wholly owned by any party.  Nobody should be afraid of a good idea.

Is this a a complete turnaround for the Republican leadership in Elbert County?  Far from it.  The only venue that the Republican candidates would agree was suitable is the Buffalo Groves Ranch out by the town of Agate.  This is hardly the best location for such an auspicious event, and will likely insure a low turnout from the voting public because of its remoteness.  Nobody is kidding anybody about why this location was deemed suitable, but the important thing is that it is going to happen!  That is the most salient point to this whole conversation.  Republican candidates are on board with this. They have committed to attend the event along with their opponents and it is open to the public.  That is a huge first step toward Elbert County getting better candidates into public office here in the county. 

It all depends on us, the voters  in the county, as to whether we will make any substantive changes in the status quo on just how local politicians do their business.  If we could get a hundred or more people to show up for this type of event in such a challenging location, then the message will have been sent.  The people would be saying that they are no longer satisfied to conduct business as usual which in the past decade has meant that there is no way to see how the candidates stack up when they are under the spotlight with their opponents.  Dare I say it again?  Oh, what the hell…this is huge!

I leave you with the following link that provides the reader with all of the pertinent information in regards to the upcoming event.  I hope to see you there.  Thanks to all of the good folks over at the Facebook group Citizens by and for Elbert County.  This is definitely a step in the right direction.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1296013247115516/