The U.S. Attorney's Office in Colorado has appointed an attorney just to handle elections-related complaints between now and Nov. 8.
“Every citizen must be able to vote without interference or discrimination and to have that vote counted -- and not be stolen by fraud," Acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer said in a press release. "The Department of Justice will act promptly and aggressively to protect the integrity of the election process."
Jason St. Julien, an assistant U.S. attorney, will lead the voter protection effort in conjunction with the Department of Justice.
We're starting to get a taste of what might come. Brandon Rittiman of 9News tweeted about this call to their newsroom that alleged that Latinos getting on a bus might represent voter fraud.
If you look through Rittiman's Twitter feed, you'll find people who agree with the caller that people getting on a bus might constitute fraud if they're the wrong sort of people.
And CBS4 has an investigation into people who have managed to vote twice in previous elections. It's not a large number -- just six people accused of or convicted of voting twice in Colorado and another six accused of voting in Colorado and another state in the same election -- and it's not coordinated. The voting scofflaws include Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliated. But still! Don't do that!
Also, don't go to polling places to follow, confront, photograph or otherwise harass voters that just don't "look" like they should be voting, whatever that means.
From the U.S. Attorney's Office, a reminder of the types of activities that violate federal law: "intimidating or bribing voters, buying and selling votes, impersonating voters, altering vote tallies, stuffing ballot boxes, and marking ballots for voters against their wishes or without their input."
Federal law also "contains special protections for the rights of voters and provides that they can vote free from acts that intimidate or harass them. For example, actions of persons designed to interrupt or intimidate voters at polling places by questioning or challenging them, or by photographing or videotaping them, under the pretext that these are actions to uncover illegal voting may violate federal voting rights law. Further, federal law protects the right of voters to mark their own ballot or to be assisted by a person of their choice."
The public can reach St. Julien at 303-454-0302.
The FBI also has special field agents prepared to investigate voter fraud and abuse of voting rights. They can be reached at 303-629-7171.
Complaints about possible violations of the federal voting rights laws can be made directly to the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section in Washington, D.C. by phone at 1-800-253-3931 or 202-307-2767, by email to [email protected] or by complaint form at https://www.justice.gov/crt/
