With Tina Peters still behind bars despite President Trump’s angry posts and Colorado’s statewide officials having affirmed their commitment to keeping her there, one might assume that Colorado has nullified the threat posed by those seeking to undermine our elections. And while on state level that may be true, election deniers remain in positions of authority on election commissions in multiple Front Range cities and towns.
The Chair of the Castle Rock Election Commission is using his public position to undermine Colorado’s elections by promoting debunked election fraud conspiracy theories. At the Commission’s Oct. 27 meeting, Tim Arvidson, who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection, introduced a letter written by one of Peters’ attorneys, John Case, that repeats several false claims about the 2020 election. When challenged by fellow Commissioner Charles Fletcher, Arvidson said he wanted to enter the letter into the public record so that it could be seen by the Castle Rock City Council.
In his letter, which is addressed to Gov. Jared Polis and Secretary of State Griswold, Case repeats the same debunked claims about Dominion Voting Systems software and rigged elections in Venezuela that cost Fox News and other right-wing media companies hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuit settlements with the Denver-based company.
Asked via email to identify his goals of entering Case’s letter into the public record and if his commission plans to take any further actions, Arvidson responded that the goal is transparency and deferred to the City Council as far as next steps. He says he has received dozens of inquiries regarding the matter of election integrity.
“With recent media reports of Election Irregularities and Fraud nationwide, and in the State of Colorado, our Elections Commission has decided (4-1), to provide transparency regarding these issues to our Town Council and Citizens,” wrote Arvidson. “Colorado Secretary of State, Jena Griswold has stated she will not provide voter roll information to the federal government! This is not only concerning, but possibly illegal! This is NOT a partisan issue! Election Integrity affects every vote in every race; local, state, and federal! Recently the United States Director of National Intelligence; Tulsi Gabbard issued a shocking statement regarding election machines and the software that they run on. [Gabbard’s statement, made during a cabinet meeting back in April, raises the unproven conspiracy theory that election results were ‘manipulated’ by hackers.] We are monitoring this situation closely.”
“Yes, there will be future discussions by the Town of Castle Rock Elections Commission in providing ‘transparency’ in response to the ongoing flow of information regarding Election Irregularities and Fraud, as well as Federal Executive Orders regarding accurate Voter Rolls,” Arvidson continued. “We will adhere to the Town of Castle Rock Charter regarding local elections and will steadfastly demand Election Integrity for the Citizens of the Town of Castle Rock… Any decisions regarding ‘actions’ in any Local Election (Town of Castle Rock) will be made by The Town of Castle Rock Town Council.”
The secretary of state did not respond to a request for comment, but did announce via press release that the Trump administration today sued Secretary Griswold over her refusal to comply with its demand for sensitive, unredacted personal information on Colorado voters.
“We will not hand over Coloradans’ sensitive voting information to Donald Trump. He does not have a legal right to the information,” said Griswold in the release. “I will continue to protect our elections and democracy, and look forward to winning this case.”
Castle Rock Town Clerk Lisa Anderson did not return multiple requests for comment on Arvidson’s statements. Douglas County Clerk Sheri Davis, who administers coordinated elections with Castle Rock, declined to comment directly on Arvidson, but says she does not anticipate any problems with upcoming elections.
“The conduct of elections in every Colorado county follows our state’s well-established and detailed laws and rules to ensure the security and integrity of the process,” says Davis. “The multiple layers of transparency and security built into the system ensure the Colorado election process is sound, and Clerk Davis and our team of Colorado Certified Election Officials are committed to upholding these standards.”
Castle Rock, with its 88,000 resident,s isn’t the only Colorado municipality with a voting fraud conspiracist on its election commission. Further north in the state’s third-largest city, conservative activist Lori Gimelshteyn has been a member of the Aurora Election Commission since 2022, when she was appointed over the objections of the council’s progressive members. Her duties include recommending ward boundaries, establishing precincts, breaking tie votes in municipal elections by lot, and appointing election judges.
Last month, she appeared on election fraud conspiracist Joe Oltmann’s podcast, where she agreed with his claims that Aurora’s elections are “totally fraudulent” and that Danielle Jurinsky did not actually lose her race. She advocated for ending voting by mail, the use of “any type of machine,” and for the city to end its coordinated election agreements with the three county clerks.
Gimelshteyn: It’s actually personally something that’s pretty significant to me. I am a commissioner on the election commission in the city of Aurora and I…
Oltmann: All of your election systems are fraudulent.
Gimelshteyn: Yes, we are working incredibly hard to bring accountability and transparency.
Oltmann: Get rid of the machines and mail-in ballots.
Gimelshteyn: And I’ll tell you that my number one recommendation is that Aurora takes back their elections. We don’t contract out to three different counties that use any type of machine.
Oltmann: Danielle Jurinsky is one of the most popular people out there, lost her election yesterday.
Gimelshteyn: Yes, she did. Good friend of mine.
Oltmann: Right? Do you believe that?
Gimelshteyn: I can’t believe it, I can’t.
The City of Aurora press office declined to comment on Gimelshteyn’s statements.
Colorado County Clerks Association Director Matt Crane expressed concern over conspiracists like Arvidson and Gimelshteyn holding official positions on election commissions.
“It is disconcerting for a number of reasons,” says Crane. “One, these claims are not based on any kind of fact and making public policy based on bullshit is never a good idea. Two, these lies continue to permeate and grow, which creates a much more hostile environment for the men and women who have to run our elections. It was just in June of this year where the Archuleta County elections office was firebombed. The person who was arrested for it has election denial stuff on social media, [and made] election denier comments, from what I understand, at commissioner meetings.”
“The fact that these lies continue to spread, that people are trying to base public policy off these lies, and that these lies continue to lead to threats against election officials- yes, we’re very concerned about that.”
Crane also expressed concern with the state of his own political party.
“Also, as a Republican who is frustrated because Republicans can’t win elections, it’s not because of fraud, it’s because too many Republicans have gone off the deep end and don’t stand for what you know we used to stand for as Republicans, which is real election integrity, not lies, and the rule of law and supporting the rule of law and that people who try to undermine our elections and do illegal things to that end, they should go to jail. But now too many people in the party don’t think that’s true anymore. And I don’t recognize the party anymore. It’s certainly not conservative, it’s certainly not anything that supports the rule of law or real election integrity.”
