Minority Report: El Paso County Canvass Board
November 19, 2021
TO:
Chuck Broerman
Clerk and Recorder
El Paso County
FROM:
Paul Prentice
Canvass Board Member
El Paso County
This is the Minority Report regarding my vote not to certify the 2021 El Paso County election. I found the Clerk and Recorder’s office and staff to be extremely professional -- competent, helpful, and respectful. My findings below are largely directed at the Colorado Secretary of State (SOS).
- On election night, 11/2, we uploaded our data to the SOS reporting website. Upon noticing that the reported total vote was more than 20% higher than what we uploaded, we refused to publish the data. After being allowed to manually overwrite what showed on the SOS website, we did publish the data. Subsequently the error was fixed and our uploaded data did match what was shown on the SOS website. We later received the explanation from SOS that there had been a software update during the election, an update of which SOS was unaware. This is unacceptable. It raises questions about the integrity of the entire voting system. What other software might have been updated without notice, but was not discovered?
- The Risk Limiting Audit (RLA) is entirely controlled through SOS. We were directed which ballot issue and which electoral race to audit, and even which individual votes within those to audit. I believe it is more appropriate to have County control of the RLA, including direct citizen oversight.
- There are several pending litigations around the country, regarding the rigor and acceptability of the certifications of election hardware and software. Until these are resolved the integrity of the El Paso County vote cannot be ensured.
- (The following data are approximate) On election day, 11/2, El Paso County received 60,000 ballots. This is more than one-third of the total ballots received, and is almost twice what a major Presidential election typically receives on the last day of the election. Given that 2021 was a minor off-year election and that the total ballots received was about one-half of a Presidential election, the percentage of votes received on the last day was about four times what would be considered normal. This is an anomaly that calls for further investigation.
- The voter rolls cannot be verified as to voter eligibility. Eligibility, and even Citizenship, are largely self-reported. The El Paso County Clerk and Recorder has made a verbal commitment to cleaning the voter rolls. This would be most welcome and make the vote more likely to be certified.
It was not possible for me, in good conscience, to certify that the 2021 election accurately reflected the will of El Paso County voters.
Respectfully,
(Signature Redacted)
Paul T. Prentice
Canvass Board Member
El Paso County