The vote’s in: Trump speech serves up schlock, not shock

President Donald Trump promised to shock. What he offered was the same old schlock.

In touting his prime-time presidential address on July 16, Trump said that his relevations regarding the United States election system would “shock” the nation. And then? More of the same.

He made no announcement that he was throwing out Georgia’s senators over unfounded concerns that their election was rigged. He gave no shout-out to Mike Lindell, the “My Pillow” election denier whose run for governor of Minnesota (where Lindell is not registered to vote) had just been endorsed by Trump. And he presented no cameo appearance by Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk convicted of numerous state felonies for interfering with her own county’s database, who was released early from prison on June 1 by Gov. Jared Polis — and who proceeded to talk smack about Colorado’s elections as thanks.

Peters had visited Trump at the White House on June 30 — apparently with the permission of her parole officer — to talk election fraud, and had posted this on X in advance of the presidential address that the major networks declined to air: “Mr. President thank you for your transparency in declassifying the ‘sauce’ of the corruption. Love what you said ‘Tonight, I am announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.’  This evidence shows that the election system we have is dangerously exposed to hacking, exploitation, and foreign interference.  @realDonaldTrump this is why as Commander in Chief you must declare a National emergency to protect our country.”

But Trump served up no sauce, much less evidence, just as Peters presented no evidence of election rigging after she broke into her own office’s system, then fled the state with Lindell’s help to appear at his August 2021 South Dakota symposium of conspiracy theorists.

In his speech five years later, Trump did trot out an example of election fraud … in Venezuela. He also claimed that China was messing with the elections in this country (no mention of Russia), and that 278,000 non-citizens were registered to vote. Oh, and he condemned reporters for failing to report the shocking developments he failed to reveal, both in his speech and in the loads of nothing-new documents uploaded on a special White House election page.

The same day that Trump administered his shock treatment, Colorado announced that it had finished its risk-limiting audit of the primary results. This state has been conducting audits of every election since 2017, a decade into mail-in voting. And while Trump blamed his loss of the 2016 Colorado Republican convention presidential vote to Ted Cruz on a “rigged” system,” this state maintains its reputation for being the gold standard for election safety.

The audits have never found discrepancies in the voting system wasn’t working, according to Colorado’s current county clerks (mostly Republican, by the way), whose association offered a lengthy statement responding to Trump’s speech: “The President’s address last night highlighted real national security threats that deserve continued attention,” it said. “It is equally important for the public to understand that many of these threats have been publicly known for years, and election officials have spent that time working alongside state and federal partners to strengthen election security and prepare for them. As a result, Colorado voters should have confidence that their elections remain among the most secure, transparent, and well-protected in the nation.”

Polis, who said he’d released Peters because her nine-year sentence was disproportionate and influenced by her very active use of the First Amendment while in court, spoke more freely: “I’m glad that the President is releasing documents, because the more we know about election threats, the more we can be prepared to protect the integrity and security of our elections. But the President’s mad ramblings do nothing to actually improve election security and in fact undermine trust in our voting systems and election outcomes. The President has lost more than 60 court cases related to the 2020 election because many of his claims are false. Tackling the real threats against our elections requires bipartisan focus and action, not lists of personal grievances.”

The system still faces very real threats. From Department of Homeland Security chief Markwayne Mullin, who on July 17 warned election officials across the country that “the machines have to be secured and your voter registration list needs to be scrubbed.” From a U.S. Postal Service order, currently stayed by a judge, that no ballots should be mailed to people who are not on a federally approved voter list. From a subpoena demanding more voter information from a variety of states, including Colorado. From the Trump-pushed SAVE America Act, legislation that would put new restrictions on the right to vote and is currently stalled in the Senate. And from Trump’s cuts to the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a partnership that Colorado’s county clerks say they valued.

“Colorado’s election system combines voter-marked paper ballots, rigorous testing, bipartisan processes, physical security, continuous cybersecurity efforts, and one of the nation’s most robust risk-limiting audits,” the clerks conclude in their response to Trump. “These independent layers work together to detect and prevent problems while ensuring every eligible voter can cast a ballot and every lawful ballot is counted accurately.”

By July 23, every Colorado county is slated to approve the final tally of ballots cast and tabulated in the June primary. Instead of the fool’s gold proffered by Lindell, Peters and Trump, this state’s system is solid gold.