Vince Phillips continues his Colorado Elections series with four new installments that drill into the structural weaknesses of the state’s mail-heavy voting model.
In #25, Phillips documents that Dominion scanners in Chaffee County produced official ballot images with blank ovals removed — a serious finding, since Colorado law determines voter intent from the image, not the paper ballot. He also notes that over 100 write-in ballots for Chaffee County Clerk went uncounted and his request to review the original paper ballots was refused.
In #26, Phillips dissects the phrase “no discrepancies were found,” arguing it means only that officials found nothing serious enough — by their own judgment — to change an outcome. He details how Risk-Limiting Audits cover only one race per county, leaving most school board, city council, and ballot measure contests with no meaningful review.
In #27, Phillips identifies a pattern: when procedural concerns are raised, officials respond by attacking the critic or issuing broad reassurances, rather than providing configuration logs, programmer capability disclosures, or genuine ballot access.
In #28, Phillips compares Colorado’s system to Switzerland and France. Switzerland uses a two-envelope system that separates voter identity from the ballot before counting. France banned postal voting in 1975 after documented fraud so pervasive it could not be explained by normal voting patterns.
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