Tag: elections

Consumer advocacy, Deplorables, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Energy, Ethics, Extremism, Mesa County Republican Party, politics, Ray Scott, Republican incompetence, Republicans violating laws, Stupid Republicans

Why not Ray Scott? Consider his past as an elected official.

by Anne Landman • June 29, 2020 • 2 Comments

Colorado State Senator Ray Scott

What do you know about State Senator Ray Scott, who is currently a candidate for Mesa County Commissioner?

One question people have about Scott is, if he is already a state senator and his term doesn’t expire until 2022, why is he running for county commissioner? Why doesn’t he want to finish his term in the State Senate?

The answer?

Money.

Scott makes $30,000/year and a $45/day per diem as a state senator.

As a county commissioner, he would more than triple his salary. The salary for a county commissioner is now $92,681, not including benefits and perks, like insurance, use of vehicles, etc. — more than three times the average salary in Mesa County.

Ballots blowing in the wind: Daily Sentinel reports more failings by Republican County Clerk Tina Peters

by Anne Landman • June 19, 2020 • 0 Comments

Customers at the Mesa County Clerk’s office have found sealed ballots blowing across the parking lot, run after them, picked them up and taken them into the Clerk’s office to be counted, according to the latest story in today’s Daily Sentinel on the epic string of failures by the Mesa County Clerk’s office.

On May 20, 2020, Republican Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters issued a press release announcing her office was installing a brand new, “convenient, 24 hour secure drive-up ballot drop box” in the Clerk’s parking lot, saying she is “focused on the safety and security of mail ballot returns, especially in this pandemic…”

But the box is proving difficult for voters to use, especially in the windy weeks we’ve had recently, resulting in ballots not being fully inserted into the box and hence flying in the wind.

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters using taxpayer funds to burnish her tarnished image with professional PR project

by Anne Landman • June 18, 2020 • 5 Comments

Internal county email about Tina Peters’ public relations project, paid for with taxpayer funds

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters used taxpayer funds to pay for a professional PR campaign promoting herself and her running of the Clerk’s office to counter the recall effort ongoing against her. The PR project comes during a time when the county is financially strapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and at a time when local governments are talking about layoffs. And she’s doing it during regular work hours and on taxpayer time, too.

Petition wording approved in recall of Mesa County Clerk; campaign moves to signature-gathering phase

by Anne Landman • June 6, 2020 • 0 Comments

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters (R) is facing a recall election due to gross incompetence and failure to carry out her duties. (Photo: YouTube)

Eagle County Treasurer Teak Simonton has approved the wording of the petition submitted by the RecallClerkTina campaign to recall Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters (R), allowing the recall effort to move to the signature-gathering phase.

The Mesa County Commissioners approved Simonton to serve as the designated election official to oversee the recall effort, since by law Peters can’t oversee her own recall effort.

AnneLandmanBlog Voter Guide for the June 30, 2020 Primary Election

by Anne Landman • June 3, 2020 • 5 Comments

Wondering how to vote in the upcoming primary election on Tuesday, June 30, 2020?

Following are AnneLandmanBlog’s recommendations for how to vote on the Mesa County Democratic Primary Ballot. Wherever candidates are running unopposed, VOTE FOR THEM. They are Democrats.

Given the difficult mess our country is in now, especially at the federal level and local levels after years of Republican domination, it’s crucial for the country to change direction by electing Democrats to every office from top to bottom this year.

Here are the recommendations:

Tina Peters upset about recall effort (sob!)

by Anne Landman • June 2, 2020 • 2 Comments

@MesaCountyClerk Peters says in today's @DailySentinelGJ that she "has been getting calls all weekend about how outraged #MesaCounty citizens are" that people are trying to recall her. I'm a Mesa County citizen who's THRILLED for the recall. I like my ballots COUNTED! #ByeTina

— Anne Landman (@AnneLandman) June 2, 2020

Democracy, Economics, Elections, politics, Ray Scott, Republican incompetence

Kathryn Bedell, DVM enters County Commissioner race for District 1

by Anne Landman • April 8, 2020 • 5 Comments

Kathryn Bedell, DVM, of Fruita, running against Ray Scott for County Commissioner, District 1

Don’t want Cody Davis or Ray Scott as Mesa County Commissioner?

Well now you finally have a better option.

Mesa County voters finally have a real candidate running for District 1 County Commissioner.

Kathryn Bedell, DVM, announced on March 26 that she is running for the District 1 Mesa County Commissioner seat.

Educated, intelligent, well-informed, fiercely pro-agriculture and pro local-economy, Dr. Bedell is the best candidate so far for County Commissioner District 1.

This year’s Democratic primary makes a good case for ranked-choice voting

by Anne Landman • March 4, 2020 • 0 Comments

Did you vote in the primary only to see your top candidate drop out before the votes were even counted?

Maddening, isn’t it?

And how many times have you seen a candidate “win” an election who got less than a third of the total vote count? Who wants a candidate holding office that two thirds of the electorate didn’t even want in office?

These situations make the case for ranked-choice voting, a fairer system of voting that is increasingly being used across the country.

And it’s no wonder.

Mesa County Clerk ignoring qualified applicants for vacant positions

by Anne Landman • March 2, 2020 • 6 Comments

Tina Peters’ own qualification to be County Clerk were that she was a retired flight attendant who had worked for a construction business for a number of years and home-schooled her kids. [Photo: Facebook]

Over 24 employees have quit the Mesa County Clerk’s office since Tina Peters took over the office just 15 months ago.

All these vacant positions must put the Clerk’s office in a pretty dire situation, considering that it’s fully staffed at 32 employees.

You’d think the Clerk would be scrambling to hire qualified people to fill these open positions, especially in an election year, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

The Job Openings web page for Mesa County lists vacancies in the Clerk’s office for Customer Service, Motor Vehicle and Elections Managers. Some of these positions have been unfilled for months.

But it doesn’t seem to be due to a lack of qualified applicants.

Could County Clerk Tina Peters be criminally liable for ballot loss scandal?

by Anne Landman • February 27, 2020 • 3 Comments

Tina Peters might have more legal exposure than previously recognized for having lost 574 ballots from the 2018 general election.

Colorado laws governing the conduct of elections include “neglect” and “failure to perform duties” among the list of behaviors by elected officials deemed punishable by fines, imprisonment, or both:

“1-13-107. Violation of duty.

Any public officer, election official, or other person upon whom any duty is imposed by this code who violates, neglects, or fails to perform such duty or is guilty of corrupt conduct … and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in section 1-13-111.”

Tina Peters arguably violated, neglected and failed to perform her duty to count all ballots turned into the County in the 2018 general election.

Contrary to what the Mesa County Republican Party has asserted, this is not a trivial matter.

Mesa County GOP: County Clerk Tina Peters’ loss of 574 ballots “trivial”

by Anne Landman • February 26, 2020 • 10 Comments

Embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters (R) may have violated Colorado laws governing elected officials’ conduct of elections. (Photo: YouTube)

The Mesa County Republican Party is trying to minimize the severity of Tina Peters’ loss of 574 ballots from the 2019 general election. Peters left them in a collection box, forgetting to count them. The Mesa County GOP characterized the matter in a February 24, 2020 press release (pdf) as “trivial” and “unfortunate.” The GOP said it was not trying to “diminish the significance of the errors,” and at the same time claimed the matter had been subject to “irresponsible sensationalism” because “no ballots were tampered with or lost,” and “no vote was changed or altered.”

The Republican Party has long made election integrity one of their prime issues, but apparently not so much when one of their own fails to count a significant number of legitimately-cast ballots.

It’s no wonder the GOP is trying to minimize the loss. The ramifications for Tina Peters could be severe, up to and including recall, and/or criminal penalties including fines, imprisonment or both.

Petition demands Tina Peters resign as County Clerk

by Anne Landman • February 25, 2020 • 4 Comments

Tina Peters, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder, neglected to collect and count 574 ballots in the 2018 general election. Mesa County residents have started a petition demanding she resign.

An online petition is up at Change.org demanding Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters resign her office in the wake of her shocking lost ballot scandal.

On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, the County Clerk’s office found 574 ballots cast in the 2018 general election still sitting in the stainless steel ballot collection box in front of the Clerk’s Elections Division office at 200 S. Spruce Street in downtown Grand Junction.

At first Peters took full responsibility for having forgotten to collect the ballots, which earned her some good will, but in a day or two she was blaming an unnamed former Clerk’s office employee for the error, enraging the public and flushing any good will she had gleaned by taking full responsibility.

The Daily Sentinel published an editorial February 22 demanding Peters resign.

Peters claimed the missing ballots wouldn’t have changed the outcome of any of the elections, but did not demonstrate this to the public.

Democratic caucuses in Mesa County are Saturday, March 7 to choose a candidate to run against Sen. Cory Gardner. Here’s what you need to know:

by Anne Landman • February 22, 2020 • 2 Comments

A 2016 caucus in a local elementary school cafeteria

Note: the date of the caucuses has been corrected in the title of this article. They are on Saturday, March 7.

We voted in Colorado’s presidential primary by mail already, but Democrats still have to pick a candidate to run against Republican Senator Cory Gardner (R-Invisible.)

That choice will be made through caucusing, which is a lot trickier than voting in the primary. Here’s what you need to know to participate in the Democratic caucuses coming up on Saturday, March 7:

Mesa County Clerk stumbles onto 500+ uncounted ballots from 2019 city/county election

by Anne Landman • February 20, 2020 • 6 Comments

Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was elected despite having zero experience as a government clerk.

The Daily Sentinel reports that when Mesa County Clerk employees went out to collect the early Democratic primary election ballots from the silver box in front of the County building downtown, they found more than 500 ballots from last year’s election sitting inside, unopened and uncounted.

I hate to say it, but…

I told you so.

Back in June, 2018 I wrote a blog about the candidates running for County Clerk that year. I pointed out that Tina Peters had absolutely zero experience in the clerk’s office, while the other candidate, Bobbie Gross, was a ten year veteran of the County Clerk’s office in charge of the entire DMV and its employees, had co-directed the 2016 presidential election in Mesa County, was a Certified Elections Official and was about to become a Certified National Elections Administrator by the end of 2018.

The choice was clear.

Modern-day Republicans oppose progress

by Anne Landman • February 9, 2020 • 1 Comment

Results of a news quiz printed in today’s Daily Sentinel demonstrates the backwards thinking that is the hallmark of conservative, right-wing Republicans.

A short blurb in the Sunday, Feb. 8, 2020 Daily Sentinel offers a lesson on why Republicans are such harmful elected officials.

The Sentinel has a regular weekly news quiz on Fridays, and gives the results in the following Sunday paper. An item today stood out for what it demonstrates about the ramifications of conservative Republican views not just for the western slope, but for society.

History shows that if Republicans had their way in the last century, most of America wouldn’t have electricity.

New, non-OGRE* candidate running for County Commissioner in District 3

by Anne Landman • February 1, 2020 • 2 Comments

Chip Page. His name on the ballot is “William Chip Page.”

* OGRE is an acronym for “Old Guard Republican Establishment.”

Voters unhappy with the longtime direction of Mesa County politics and tired of the same old people running for office can finally breathe a collective sigh of relief. A new and viable candidate has entered the 2020 race for Mesa County Commissioner District 3, which comprises most of the eastern side of the county, generally east of 30 Road. The current commissioner, Rose Pugliese, is term-limited out.

Why I voted “no” on Proposition DD

by Anne Landman • October 31, 2019 • 0 Comments

Proposition DD on the November 5 ballot would legalize gambling on amateur and professional sports and tax the proceeds at a rate of 10% to pay for “water projects,” purportedly projects proposed in the Colorado Water Plan. I wasn’t sure how to vote on Prop DD until I did some research on it and put some thought into. What I found convinced me to vote “no.”

Here’s what I found out:

Grand Junction High School photos

by Anne Landman • October 20, 2019 • 2 Comments

In case you haven’t had a chance to tour Grand Junction High School prior to the November 5 election, the following photos were taken inside the school on a tour on Saturday morning, October 19, 2019. What the photos cannot relate are the odors in some of these areas, which were quite objectionable. Ventilation was lacking in many areas. Measure 4A on the Mesa County Ballot will fund construction of a new Grand Junction High School. The current building was constructed in 1956. AnneLandmanBlog urges a “YES” vote on Measure 4A for fund a new school:

Classroom on the east side of campus

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