Consider This from NPR - They Don't Trust Election Officials, So They're Doing Their Own Door-To-Door Audit

Episode Date: July 14, 2022

Your vote is secret. But the fact that you voted in an election is typically public record.So some people who falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen have tried to audit the results themselves by going door to door in neighborhoods across the country.NPR's Miles Parks and Colorado Public Radio's Bente Birkeland report on this canvassing effort. It's part of a controversial movement to galvanize everyday Americans to try to uncover voter fraud in their own communities. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu forward. Last year, two men came to Michelle Garcia's door in Pueblo County, Colorado. One had a clipboard and a baseball cap on. The other wore a blue collared shirt and a lanyard. They wanted to know how she cast her ballot. This recording comes from Garcia's front door camera. You can hear the men say they're working to verify the 2020 election results.

We're working off the city voter votes. We want to just ask a couple questions about the 2020 vote. results. Garcia says the two men asked her all sorts of questions, pointing back to the baseless idea that the 2020 election was stolen. His specific questions were, did you vote by mail and ballot? How many times have you voted? He wanted to know who I voted for, who I supported. How do I know that it wasn't changed? And a lot of it was targeted at the clerk and recorder's office and that it was fraudulent. She told them she'd never had any issue with voting and didn't want to discuss her personal voting record. They were very aggressive. There was no boundaries with their ethics or with civility.

They will push until you give an answer. A few hundred miles west in Mesa County, Ann Landman was cooking dinner when three women knocked on her door. They just said they were canvassing, surveying, and asked if I voted in the last election. And I said, yes. And they said, did your husband vote in the last election? And I said, yes, he did. And they said, okay your husband vote in the last election? And I said, yes, he did. And they said, OK, thank you very much. She says the women weren't aggressive, but she still wondered why they were at her door. I asked them as they were turning to leave, I said, who is this for?

And they said, the Election Integrity Project, which I hadn't heard of. This group, which technically calls itself the U.S. Election Integrity Plan, it's not affiliated with the U.S. government or any official elections office. It's a Colorado-based grassroots organization that sends people door to door to try to audit election results themselves. It's not clear if the group is affiliated with the canvassers who came to Michelle Garcia's door, who said they were with a local group, but the election integrity plan says it's knocked on thousands of doors so far. And across the country, other organizations have popped up to do the same thing. Consider this. Despite a mountain of evidence confirming the 2020 election results,

activists pushing baseless theories are trying to uncover fraud by canvassing their neighbors. They say it's about transparency. Their critics say it's voter intimidation. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. It's Thursday, July 14th, 2022. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. A couple of facts at the top. Which candidates you voted for is secret.

That's a fundamental rule in our democracy. But the fact that you voted in an election is typically public record. And the U.S. Election Integrity Plan, which you heard about at the top, its training documents say door-to-door canvassers should just be verifying this publicly available data. They're supposed to be unbiased fact finders. NPR's Miles Parks and Colorado Public Radio's Benta Birkeland teamed up to look into how the effort is playing out in practice. They heard that lots of people welcomed canvassers trying to uncover voter fraud, and from many others who were worried about it. We should point out that in the two years since the 2020 election, numerous paper ballot hand counts, audits, and court cases across

the country have confirmed the election results. But a constellation of these sorts of groups, where regular people go out in their neighborhoods and try to find the fraud themselves have popped up across the country since 2020. When the puzzle pieces don't fit together, it makes you wonder. And if it's important to you, you'll look into it. That's Rebecca Kelty. She was a Republican congressional candidate, and we met up with her at an apartment building in El Paso County, where she helped canvass last summer. Kelty says canvassers were given sheets of voting records that included a person's name, address, and method of voting, all public information in Colorado, though it's not clear why they were sent to certain locations and neighborhoods and not others. I'm not quite sure the criteria that

they used to say, okay, these votes were in question, but they were in question. No one knows exactly how common this sort of fraud-motivated canvassing has become around the country. The group in Colorado put out a report this spring indicating volunteers with the organization knocked on close to 10,000 doors in just four counties here. And officials in other Colorado counties and a number of other states say it's happening there too. The 2020 election wasn't close in Colorado. Still, the state has become a hotbed for election misinformation. Most Colorado counties use voting systems from Dominion, which has become a target of right-wing conspiracies and is headquartered in Denver.

Another example, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was indicted for allegedly tampering with election equipment in an effort to expose fraud. She's defended her actions. Then there's Sean Smith, the co-founder of the Election Integrity Plan. He's from El Paso County. Recently, he said election officials, who he claims rigged the 2020 election, deserve to hang. I think if you're involved in election fraud, then you deserve to hang. Sometimes the wrong ways are the best ways. I was accused of endorsing violence. I'm not endorsing violence. I'm saying what you put your hand on a hot stove, you get burned. Smith's group, the Election Integrity Plan, did not respond to requests by NPR for comment. But the group's website makes it clear they're working on building a fraud-finding infrastructure.

The group has published an organizing playbook so regular people everywhere can join the movement. Kelty, the canvasser we heard from earlier, said she wants there to be more scrutiny on the upcoming November election than ever before. I hope it's under the tightest microscope you can possibly put it under. Is there a part of you that worries about, there's a lot of election workers who are quitting right now because the pressure is just so great and they're like worried about their safety because they're getting threats in a way they never were before. Do you worry about that microscope kind of furthering that problem? No, I don't think so. I think if there is pressure and if there are threats, then that right there tells you

that something, they're trying to get away with something. And to be clear, election officials in Colorado are feeling that strain. Like outgoing Republican clerk and recorder Chuck Brorman from El Paso County. He faced pushback from people who wanted to investigate the county's voting machines. I remember after one particular meeting where there was a lot of pressure and the statement that, you know, Clerk Brorman will either do this with you or through you, which I took as a threat, that you better work with us or we'll either do this with you or through you, which I took as a threat, that you better work with us

or we'll make things difficult for you. People associated with this canvassing movement say it's all about transparency. Here's Kelty. You only hide things when you're ashamed of them. So let's go out, let's open everything up, complete transparency. But the election integrity plan

isn't being fully transparent themselves. It claims to have affidavits indicating election crimes were committed in a number of Colorado counties, including Brorman's. That's a big accusation. But the election integrity group hasn't provided details for these supposed crimes or the affidavits referenced in its report. When we visited his office, Brorman pulled out a map of his county and a highlighter to show us some of the neighborhoods he's guessing they visited. This is, I think, the precinct, the Fillmore area where we think there was canvassing done. He said the group owes it to its volunteers to share whatever evidence they have. Brorman is basically certain there's a reasonable explanation for whatever anomalies the canvassers

think they've found. I think the volunteers that did this really want to gain better understanding and assurances. And I think you owe it to them to follow up on that data and verify that it is indeed the case and is not being used as a tool to push a particular viewpoint. But at this point, you may be wondering, is this sort of data collection even legal? Can just anyone go door-to-door asking people about how and whether they voted? And the answer is pretty complicated. It's not against the law for constituents to investigate their own elections. That's Sharona Bishop, who helped organize canvassers in Mesa County.

There is no law against going door to door to figure out if people actually voted in the election that the certified data says they voted in. And Bishop is correct, though, with a giant asterisk. open letter last year referencing an election review in Arizona, the U.S. Department of Justice warned that certain canvassing could be voter intimidation, possibly violating the Federal Voting Rights Act. And some county officials got calls last summer from people who said canvassers claimed to be with the government. Here's Carly Koppis, the Republican county clerk in Weld County. We started getting calls saying, what in the heck is going on? Like, why did these people come to my door? Why are they asking me about this?

And they said they were given the perception that they were with your office. And if you're given that perception that you are a government official, it almost equates to the same as you saying that you're a police officer when you're not. All the canvassers we talked to said that didn't happen on their watch. In Mesa County, the clerk's office said they answered questions for months. And according to county officials, a lot of the voters were angry at the clerk's office because they said canvassers told them their votes weren't counted. The clerk's office said that information was wrong.

Several voting rights groups have also filed a lawsuit to stop these sorts of canvases from continuing Colorado after the midterm elections. They allege it's a type of voter intimidation that will negatively affect communities of color. And U.S. election integrity plan has countersued for defamation. Even if the voting rights groups do stop this specific practice, though, election officials say that doesn't solve the core problems that drive people to election denialism. Here's Clerk Browerman again. I think people are looking for answers. You know, I voted for candidate X. I voted for issue Y. All my friends that I, you know, live and work with and go to church with and

hang out with believe like I do. So how could something be different than hot? He says for a lot of these volunteers, investigating election results could be part of their search for meaning and understanding in the world. Colorado Public Radio's Benta Birkeland and NPR's Miles Parks. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers. This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University drives discovery, innovation, and creative endeavors to solve some of society's greatest challenges. Groundbreaking investments in neuroscience, climate change, Alzheimer's research, and cybersecurity mean IU sets new standards to move the world forward,

unlocking cures and solutions that lead to a better future for all. More at iu.edu slash forward.