Boulder County Clerk and Recorder Molly Fitzpatrick said she and her staff have been called traitors as well as being scum and cancers.
Fitzpatrick said she had no inkling she would be the target of such ire when she was elected as clerk and recorder four years ago and took over the job of overseeing elections in the county.
“Did I expect the volume of threats and the language people are using now? Absolutely not,” Fitzpatrick said this week. “Our staff and volunteers work hard to make sure the voting in our county is fair and above reproach. They work when it snows, when it rains and in any condition.”
“And they don’t deserve this kind of treatment,” Fitzpatrick said.
Her staff has still been spared the type of vitriol and violent threats that have been spewed to county election officials in other parts of the state and the country, she said. The threats have been generated by claims from former President Donald Trump and his followers that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him by unscrupulous poll workers.
Numerous investigations have found that those allegations are unfounded, according to FactCheck.org.
Still, the rancor produced by election deniers have reached deadly levels, officials say.
Earlier this week, senior FBI officials said seven states across the country — including Colorado — continue to see unusual levels of threats to election workers, according to CBS News.
FBI officials are discussing how to deal with these threats as state officials in 8,800 election districts prepare for midterm elections in November, CBS News states. Since June 2021, the FBI has received more than 1,000 tips concerning threats to election workers and roughly 11% of those tips have led to FBI investigations.
The spokeswoman for the Denver FBI office referred questions about election security to the national FBI office. No one could be reached for comment.
The Boulder County Clerk and Recorder’s office has taken steps to ensure election worker safety and the integrity of the vote, Fitzpatrick said. “Our office put security as a top priority and we have doubled down in security work since 2020 and 2021,” she said.
A new exterior camera has been installed at the county’s ballot processing center in downtown Boulder that allows staff on the inside to ensure that only valid election judges and staff are allowed into the building, Fitzpatrick said.
Her office also began training temporary election judges to be on the lookout for “insider threats” within the county’s 19 voting centers. “We’ve enhanced and increased security training in response to an active shooter,” Fitzpatrick said.
She will also be meeting next week with the Boulder County Sheriff to discuss deputy patrols in and around voting centers.
Fitzpatrick is happy that new laws — enacted by state lawmakers this year — help protect election workers. The legislation allows election workers to have their personal information, such as home addresses, redacted from public records that could be accessed by others, according to the Associated Press.
The new law also makes it a misdemeanor crime for anyone using personal information to threaten or influence elections workers, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 or a jail term up to 364 days, or both, the AP states.
To allay fears around the counting process, her office is offering more tours of the ballot center to allow a better look at how ballots are counted. She admits some will not be convinced the county is not holding a legitimate election.
“There are those who are election deniers no matter what,” Fitzpatrick said. “There are also those who are genuinely interested in the process. We welcome their questions.”
Still, the new, threatening environment surrounding elections have led some to quit jobs or to stop volunteering to help tabulate votes, Fitzpatrick said.
“A lot have said ‘I don’t need this. I didn’t sign up for this,’” she said.
