Colorado Republicans first email after this year’s election had a simple message: “We Won!!” The Colorado Republicans’ first event after this year’s election has speakers with a simple message: we can’t trust Colorado’s election results.
A trio of election conspiracists will join Colorado GOP Chair Dave Williams, who also believes the 2020 election was stolen, at the party’s Capitol Club Luncheon on Nov. 26.
Shawn Smith, Mark Cook, and Joe Oltmann are all part of a cottage industry of election deniers funded largely by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Smith, who clashed with Capitol Police on Jan. 6, recently testified that he “works full-time” for Lindell’s Cause of America. Cook is an IT guy who, along with Smith, helped Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder breach his own voting machines. Cook now travels the country trying to convince conservative county officials to ban their clerks from using modern election equipment and instead count ballots by hand. Oltmann is a tech exec-turned-podcaster who launched an anti-government group during the pandemic that has a militia arm.
All three men spoke on a Colorado GOP Zoom call earlier this week, and each made statements indicating that they do not trust the results of Colorado’s elections. Smith called the election “an environment rife with fraud and lies.” Cook doesn’t just want a recount; he wants to redo the entire election, saying flat-out: “The elections in Colorado unfortunately seem to be irredeemably compromised and they probably need to all be redone.”
Meanwhile, Oltmann pointed to the fact that Democrats continue to win majorities in Colorado as proof of fraud.
“Colorado was the only state to go against the national trend of going red,” said Oltmann. “Yet it’s the only state where you had BIOS passwords that were actually released months ago in violation of our own rules.”
The purpose of the call was to update Republicans on the party’s efforts to convince county election canvass board officials to refuse to certify their local election results, and to ask Republicans stateside to submit affidavits to local district attorneys casting doubt on the election results over the password leak. Williams himself joined the call at the end to discuss the party’s plan to sue the SOS, explaining why they didn’t join the Libertarian Party’s failed lawsuit, but are instead pursuing a federal lawsuit with Trump attorney Kurt Olsen.
The conspiracists have all been far more direct about their election denialism online.
Smith tweeted:
“So, to be clear: anyone telling you CO voting systems are ‘secure’ and Coloradans’ votes can be or were ‘counted fairly and accurately’ because of Griswold’s/Polis’ ‘swift action’ is either obliteratingly stupid or humping a false narrative.”
Oltmann, who since being banned from Twitter/X, now posts under his Conservative Daily podcast account, posted the day after the election, “The election was fixed and the machines have to go. Dominion is finished and so are the people who stole our voice for 4 years.”
Oltmann’s willingness to attack Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems is notable, considering he is currently refusing a court order to produce evidence of his claims that a Dominion employee rigged the 2020 election.
District Court Judge William J. Martínez ordered Oltmann to pay $1,000 every day he refused to sit for a deposition about his claims, but has stayed the fines pending a ruling on Oltmann’s appeal to the Tenth Circuit.
According to an online charity page Oltmann’s family created for him, he has raised over $20,000 for his legal bills. He can’t be too hard up for cash, though, considering that on Nov. 6, Oltmann announced he was treating himself to a Tesla Cyberbeast truck, which has a base price of $100,000. “I gave myself a gift for all the work I put in, a Cyberbeast,” wrote Oltmann. “Don’t care if I need it.”
Chairman Williams did not respond to an email request for comment as to whether he has confidence that the election results are legitimate and whether he has any concerns that having these election deniers speak at a Colorado GOP event will hurt the party’s credibility. This article will be updated with any response received.
At least one Colorado GOP insider expressed frustration at the party’s decision to promote these conspiracists, saying via text, “It takes a special kind of stupid to try to challenge an election that you won.”
The Colorado GOP Capitol Club Luncheon with Williams, Smith, Cook, and Oltmann takes place next Tuesday, Nov. 26, at Maggiano’s in Englewood.
