Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday defended his decision to commute the prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a day after the Colorado Democratic Party voted to censure him over the decision.

Peters, an election denier and prominent ally of President Donald Trump, was convicted in 2024 for her role in a breach of her office’s election system.

Just because the Democratic Party doesn’t want him speaking at their events doesn’t mean he won’t attend them, Polis said, but there are other events he’s invited to that he can opt to attend instead of official party events, such as those related to charity, hunger relief or education.

“I’m really proud to be a Democrat,” Polis said, adding that he’d rather be a Democrat than a member of a party that is “trying to abolish primaries, as the Republican Central Committee has been focused on doing here in the last few months.”

The Colorado Republican Party has been in court since 2023 seeking to block unaffiliated voters from participating in their primary elections.

Polis answered questions from reporters about Peters’ case on Thursday at the Governor’s Mansion in Denver after he signed an executive order taking several actions intended to encourage Coloradans to eat healthier.

Polis said the Peters case “always bothered” him, because consideration of her speech by the judge in her case “is really very contrary to the First Amendment.” He cited a recent Colorado Court of Appeals decision, which said the trial court improperly took into consideration Peters’ protected expression of beliefs while determining her sentence, and it ordered a resentencing.

Arguments over her sentence detract from what should be “the broad-based condemnation of the illegal acts that Tina Peters committed, along with the reputation of any conspiracy theories that she believes in,” Polis said.

Defendants can believe in “a variety of conspiracy theories” that can be potentially relevant to their motive, Polis said, but those beliefs should not influence their sentence.

“I think the rightful conviction of the felonies she’s convicted for, which will stand, was not in question by the jury. It was very clear she committed these criminal acts, but the fact that she holds certain beliefs should not impact the sentencing.”

The governor’s decision, which came after a year-long campaign of legal pressure and coercion by Trump and other far-right election deniers seeking Peters’ release, was roundly condemned by Coloradans from across the political spectrum.

All six Democratic members of Colorado’s congressional delegation and numerous state lawmakers and local officials have blasted the commutation. Some Democrats have called for Polis to be impeached. The Republican district attorney who prosecuted Peters and the bipartisan Colorado County Clerks Association have also expressed deep disappointment.

Peters’ involvement in the breach of her office’s secure election equipment was part of a failed attempt to find evidence of election fraud, and she has continued to espouse election conspiracy theories.

Question of free speech

Polis previously said he wouldn’t act until after the state appeals court released a decision on Peters’ sentence. Other legal processes are still playing out in the Peters case, but Polis said they could have taken years, and the clemency process is distinct from the courts.

“I think it’s very important to make this statement of support for our First Amendment rights and to make sure that going forward, we have a precedent ensuring that judges do not take into consideration the free speech of a convict when setting their sentence,” Polis said.

The commutation should not detract from the work he has done to take on the Trump administration, such as co-founding Governors Safeguarding Democracy, protecting state elections from federal interference, and defending immigrants and civil rights, Polis said.

“At the same time, we should not be sacrificing our ideals to do that,” Polis said. He cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s Skokie decision, in which the court ruled the town of Skokie, Illinois, could not prohibit a Nazi group from conducting a march in the town since it would violate the group’s free speech.

Polis said he has not spoken with Trump or members of the administration since he issued Peters’ commutation last week. He didn’t directly respond to a question about concerns that his decision could encourage future election interference, and he said he’d ask anyone with those concerns what they think an appropriate sentence for Peters would have been.

She was initially sentenced to nine years. Polis cut her sentence to four and a half years, ordering her release from state prison on June 1.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.

Trump threatens to turn on Boebert, but it’s too late for a 2026 primary challenger

by Lindsey Toomer, Colorado Newsline
May 19, 2026

It is too late for another candidate to get on the June primary ballot in Colorado, despite President Donald Trump’s threat to back a primary challenger against longtime ally U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.

Boebert, a Windsor Republican, joined U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie at several campaign events in Kentucky last week as he faced a primary challenger backed by Trump. Boebert posted on X emphasizing her support of both Trump and Massie, who led efforts to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files last year.

Massie lost his primary election Tuesday to a challenger backed by Trump.

Trump on his social media platform Truth Social asked if anyone is interested in running against Boebert, whom he called “Weak Minded” for campaigning for Massie.

“Even though I long ago endorsed Boebert, if the right person came along, it would be my Honor to withdraw that Endorsement, and endorse a good and proper alternative,” Trump said. “Just let me know, or announce your Candidacy, and I will be there for you!”

Boebert posted on X shortly after acknowledging that she saw Trump’s post, saying she is “not mad or offended.”

“I knew the risks when I agreed to stand by my friend Thomas Massie,” Boebert said. “I was, and will be, America First, America Always, and MAGA.”

The June primary ballots in Colorado have already been certified by Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office, and county clerks mailed ballots to overseas voters this past weekend. Eligible voters can request a mail ballot for the June primary from their county clerk’s office as of Saturday.

Candidates from any party who were not on the primary ballot and want to run as a write-in candidate in the November general election can file an affidavit of interest with the secretary of state’s office no later than July 16, according to secretary spokesperson Jack Todd.

Boebert is running unopposed in the Republican primary. Eileen Laubacher, a retired Navy rear admiral and former National Security Council official, will be the sole name on the Democratic primary ballot, but Jenna Preston is running as a write-in candidate in the Democratic primary.

Republicans have a strong advantage in the 4th District, which includes most of Douglas County and the Eastern Plains.

Colorado’s primary election is on June 30.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 6:06 p.m., May 19, 2026, to note that Rep. Thomas Massie lost his primary election.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.

Democratic Trisha Calvarese announced Tuesday that she will not continue her campaign seeking a rematch against U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District.

Calvarese said in a post on X that she will suspend her campaign and congratulated Eileen Laubacher, the leading Democrat in the race, who will likely face the incumbent Boebert, a Windsor Republican, in the November election.

“We showed the progress a grassroots Democrat can make without compromising fundamental values,” Calvarese said in the post. “I will continue to fight for the American middle class and the dignity of human work. The status quo cannot hold. But the future will be shaped by those who step forward to meet it and I will continue to do that work.”

Calvarese did not respond to a request for more information from Newsline ahead of publication.

Since launching her campaign last year, Laubacher has established a substantial fundraising advantage over her rivals, raising more money than every other candidate of either party in the race combined. In a statement, Laubacher applauded Calvarese’s energy and persistence.

“Over multiple cycles, she has helped elevate the visibility of this race and engage people across the district in meaningful ways, and her willingness to step forward in this race takes real courage,” Laubacher said. “It’s time to turn the corner and focus fully on what comes next and what matters most: defeating Lauren Boebert in November.”

The Democratic assembly for the 4th District is scheduled for Thursday, after county assemblies occurred throughout March. A third Democratic candidate, John Padora, is also on the assembly ballot, but with the vast majority of delegates already awarded to Laubacher, it is likely that she will be unopposed in the June primary.

Calvarese sued the Colorado Democratic Party in March, claiming that Laubacher was ineligible to participate in the Democratic caucus and assembly process because she was not registered as a Democrat for at least 12 consecutive months. A Denver judge did not find good cause to issue the orders the lawsuit requested barring Laubacher from the assembly process.

Laubacher, a retired Navy rear admiral and former National Security Council official, registered as a Democrat on March 27, 2025. Calvarese’s lawsuit argued Laubacher should not be eligible to participate in a district assembly that was initially scheduled for March 26.

Boebert beat Calvarese in the 2024 election by 12 percentage points. The 4th District, which includes most of Douglas County and the Eastern Plains, is the safest Republican-held district in the state.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.

With Colorado’s third confirmed case of measles reported in 2026, state public health officials say getting vaccinated is the most effective way to protect against the virus.

The case, announced Monday, involves a second student at Broomfield High School to contract measles, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Adams County Health Department. Neither of the two infected students had received the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine. All three of Colorado’s confirmed measles cases in 2026 occurred in children 5-17 years old.

People at the high school between Feb. 24 and Feb. 27 could have been exposed and could see symptoms develop through March 20. Other locations where people could have been exposed are updated on CDPHE’s website, which lists exposure sites in Broomfield, Denver, Lafayette, Littleton Louisville and Westminster. Anyone at any of the locations during the exposure window should contact their health care provider.

Symptoms of measles include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes, and a rash that typically starts several days after other symptoms. The viral disease is extremely contagious and can be deadly.

“You can protect your loved ones, yourself, and the community against measles by making sure you are up to date on your measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine,” CDPHE recommends.

CDPHE offers online guides in English and Spanish explaining how families can prepare for measles at their children’s school or child care facility. Children attending school or day care are required by state law to have the MMR vaccine unless they have a medical or non-medical exemption on file at the school. If a measles case occurs at a school, children with exemptions on file could be required to stay home for at least 21 days.

All health insurance providers, including Medicaid and Medicare, cover the MMR vaccine. CDPHE has an online tool to find local vaccine providers.

Colorado reported six cases of measles between 2014 and 2024, and 36 cases in 2025.

The U.S. has already seen more than 1,000 measles cases in 2026, nearly half of what it saw in 2025. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spent decades spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about vaccines and other health issues. Health officials say declining vaccine rates are to blame for the rising measles case numbers.

Child care funding cuts said to hurt Colorado economy, families

by Lindsey Toomer, Colorado Newsline
January 13, 2026

Without access to federal child care assistance, single mother Robbie Basham would have to leave her job to care for her son full-time.

“His quality of life would go down because I wouldn’t be able to pay for what we need to live,” Basham said.

A funding freeze on federal safety-net programs that support low-income families and their children will harm all families who seek child care in the state, providers and advocates said in a press call U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, organized Tuesday.

The Trump administration froze $10 billion for the Child Care Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and the Social Services Block Grant programs in Colorado, Minnesota, New York, California and Illinois. The states all have Democratic governors, and the funding freeze is seen by Democrats as punishment against states disfavored by President Donald Trump.

The Administration for Children and Families, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the states they will not get money for the programs while the federal government conducts a “thorough review of the State’s use of funding for compliance and alignment with statutory requirements.”

Sharyl Boehm and Cheryl Gould, co-owners of the Rocky Mountain Children’s Discovery Center in Cañon City, have worked in child care for 30 years. The funding freeze will have “immediate and devastating consequences for families and educators at our facility alone,” Boehm said. She said 42 children and their families would immediately have their child care upended.

“These parents rely on child care assistance in order to work and support their families,” Boehm said. “The majority of our families in this rural area, it takes two. So both parents are working as hard as they can to pay the bills, and without child care, that doesn’t happen. It’s an impossible choice between employment and caring for their own children.”

Rocky Mountain Children’s Discovery Center has been caring for Basham’s son since he was 6 months old.

“They know about his fears, and they know how to comfort him, and they work with him in every way,” Basham said. “I will be one of the people that will not go to work because my son needs to be safe, and I know he’s safe at Rocky Mountain. ”

Parents have started posting on social media looking for anybody to care for their child, which Boehm said is “really scary” because people who are not licensed or qualified may end up providing child care. Gould said having fewer children in their center due to the funding cuts will affect their bottom line, and could also lead to employee furloughs.

“It really hits us in the heart to say to these families, ‘No, you can’t come because there’s no funding,’” Gould said. “
That’s just not right. Everybody knows somebody who is dependent on child care.”

Pettersen, a mother of two young children, said the $3 million being withheld for child care assistance will affect 27,000 children in Colorado, most of whom are under the age of 3. She said the federal assistance only goes to families whose income is less than $59,000 a year.

“Half of our state already lives in a child care desert, and we have one of the most expensive child care systems in the country,” Pettersen said in the virtual press call. “Colorado loses a billion dollars in revenue because of lack of access to child care, and 10,000 women have said that they would like to be in the workforce, but they can’t afford child care, and that has a huge impact on our economy.”

New burden for county staff

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat running for governor, filed a lawsuit with the other affected states that says the president does not have the authority to unilaterally freeze funding approved by Congress for the states. A judge issued a temporary order halting the funding freeze last week.

The sudden funding freeze undermines the stability of children and their families, as well as local and state economies, according to Heather Tritten, president and CEO of the Colorado Children’s Campaign, a nonprofit policy and research organization. Colorado also uses CCDF funds to train and license all of its child care providers, she said.

“While the freeze is currently paused, this action should never have occurred,” Tritten said. “Children can’t vote.
They can’t run for office, and programs that support children should never be used in political gamesmanship.”

Colorado receives about $136 million in block funding for TANF, administered through Colorado Works, every year. In 2024, a Colorado family of three received a maximum monthly TANF benefit of $585, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. Last year, the state was allocated about $140 million in federal funds to pay for care for children in low-income families, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Colorado’s federal assistance for child care is administered through counties, so the funding freeze adds an additional burden for county staff, Lisa Roy, executive director of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, said. She said state agencies are working together to monitor the impacts of the funding freeze and supplementing with state dollars where possible.

“The funding ensures children are in safe, nurturing early learning environments while enabling parents to work,” Roy said. “They can also pursue education, but most of all, maintain economic stability.”

The state anticipates its federal funding to support child care will run out by Jan. 31.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.

Republican Mark Baisley now running for U.S. Senate, drops bid for Colorado governor

by Lindsey Toomer, Colorado Newsline
January 5, 2026

Colorado state Sen. Mark Baisley is ditching his campaign for Colorado governor to run for U.S. Senate instead.

Baisley, a Woodland Park Republican, announced on a conservative podcast this week that he will challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper in November. He leaves behind a crowded GOP primary field for Colorado governor, where he said the electorate “will have some good choices there for moving forward with a new governor.”

“My focus is now on the United States Senate, where I frankly feel more suited,” Baisley told Brandon Wark of Free State Colorado. “I’ve been in the Legislature for seven years, this is my eighth year now, and it would be transitioning to the legislature at a bigger stage in Washington D.C. rather than in Denver, Colorado.”

Baisley is the most experienced Republican to enter the 2026 race for the Senate. Janak Joshi, a Republican former member of the Colorado House of Representatives and past candidate for Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, is also running for U.S. Senate. Other Republican candidates include Montrose County Commissioner Sean Pond, George Markert and Dathan Jones.

Colorado state Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, is also challenging Hickenlooper. Baisley said he hopes the internal battle for Democrats in the June primary will benefit his campaign. Other Democratic candidates include attorney Karen Breslin, software engineer Brashad Hasley and accountant A.J. Zimpfer.

Hickenlooper, a former Colorado governor and mayor of Denver, beat former U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Republican, by 10 percentage points in the 2020 election. Hickenlooper’s campaign characterized Baisley as “too extreme for Colorado” and said he joins a group of Republican candidates campaigning to “prove who would be more loyal to Trump.”

Baisley did not respond to a request for comment from Newsline.

Other Republican candidates running for governor include state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, state Rep. Scott Bottoms, Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell, Bob Brinkerhoff, Jason Clark, Jon Gray-Ginsberg, Kelvin “K-Man” Wimberly and Will McBride.

Greg Lopez, who briefly represented Colorado’s 4th Congressional District in Congress following former U.S. Rep. Ken Buck’s resignation, announced Monday he will continue his campaign for governor, but as an unaffiliated candidate.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser are running in the Democratic primary for governor. Colorado hasn’t had a Republican governor since Gov. Bill Owens left office after the 2006 election.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.

In December 2003, Jason Crow landed in the Baltimore airport on a Delta flight from Kuwait.

Christmas music played in the terminal. The airport was decorated for the holidays. Families were preparing for holiday travel.

Before the flight from Kuwait, Crow had left Baghdad on a military flight. Before the military flight, Crow’s transport had been ambushed, and a firefight ended in the deaths of several Iraqi soldiers. Before that, Crow led a platoon of Army paratroopers on over 100 combat missions during the U.S. invasion of Iraq throughout 2003.

But once he was back in Baltimore, a rental car company wouldn’t lease Crow a car because he wasn’t old enough.

“It was like getting off of a ship and onto a different planet,” Crow said of the Baltimore airport. “I’m like ‘Listen, I literally just spent almost a year leading a platoon of paratroopers at war for this country, and you literally won’t rent me a car because I’m not 25 yet?’”

Once a different company agreed to rent him a car, Crow was driving on the interstate to Fort Bragg for a special training course. He found himself scanning the roads, as well as the rooftops and windows of buildings he drove by.

“I was just so used to being alert and hyperaware for roadside bombs or snipers or an ambush, and I was just instinctively doing it,” Crow said. “And it just dawned on me that, you know, I had some work to do, basically.”

As the leader of a military platoon, he didn’t have time to think about himself and was more focused on looking after his soldiers, he said.

“You’re so focused on the missions and taking care of your soldiers and making sure their needs are met,” Crow said. “There’s just constant intensity, right? You’re working 16, 17, 18 hour days, and you’re sleeping three or four hours. You’re cleaning your weapons, you’re getting ready for the next mission. It is such an intense pace.”

Crow’s combat experience would be a crucial factor many years later in a different kind of conflict, this time with the nation’s commander-in-chief.

Last month, Crow, now a member of the U.S. House from Colorado, and five other congressional Democrats addressed members of the military and intelligence community in a public video, saying service members can and must refuse illegal orders from the Trump administration. President Donald Trump responded in social media posts to condemn their words as seditious and punishable by death. He called the Democrats, who each contributed to military or intelligence missions on behalf of their country, traitors. He shared a post calling for them to be hanged. Now they’re the targets of federal investigations.

But what went unacknowledged in the response from Trump, who never served in the military, and what grounded Crow’s message with authority is that Crow, a decorated war hero who has received and issued countless commands on multiple battlefields, understands firsthand the nature of military orders.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice says that service members have the right to refuse orders that violate the U.S. Constitution, U.S. law or military regulations. Though the purpose of the Democrats’ video was to remind troops of that right, the Department of Defense is investigating one them, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, for his involvement, and the FBI has requested interviews with others in the video, including Crow.

Throughout his military career, Crow said he always took “compliance with the law and morality very seriously.”

When training his platoon of paratroopers before going to Iraq, Crow sat them down in a room and showed them a scene from the 1986 movie “Platoon” depicting the My Lai massacre. The movie is based on real events during the Vietnam War, and the scene showed U.S. soldiers murdering hundreds of civilians.

“I showed that scene to my paratroopers, and then I led a discussion with them about how that happened, and the emotional pressures and the fear and the anxiety and the loss of humanity that led to those actions and into that massacre,” Crow said. “Because I wanted to get them thinking about who they were and how they would respond to those pressures and those tensions. Because I knew that if I waited until we were in the moment, that that would have been too late. You can never train people in the moment, because the fog of war and the intensity is too much. You have to set the conditions.”

That is part of why he and fellow veterans in Congress put out the video on refusing unlawful orders, Crow said, “to start that discussion and start people thinking about what their obligation is.”

Crow has introduced legislation to increase oversight of civilian casualties in conflict zones. He also cofounded a caucus in the U.S. House centered on protecting civilians. His firsthand experience seeing how conflict affects civilians and witnessing civilian casualties informed that work.

“That’s why I am so committed to making sure that we train people and we enforce the law of war and the Geneva Conventions and making sure that our young folks know what they can do and shouldn’t do, and never losing sight of themselves,” Crow said. “When you take a unit of young soldiers, most of whom are 18, 19, 20 years old, and most of whom have never left home and you put them into a combat zone and you’re there for months and months and sometimes a year, it’s easy for folks to lose sight of who they are and where they come from.”

From ROTC to the front lines

Crow worked in construction to afford college, and enlisted in the Wisconsin National Guard soon after he started school because it fully covered tuition. He took a semester off for basic training and joined the guard as a private.

He went to drills one weekend a month and for two weeks in the summer, and that’s where he discovered that he “loved wearing the uniform.”

“I loved having the patch on my shoulder,” Crow said. “I loved being a part of something bigger than myself, a team, and I really for the first time in my life realized how passionate I was about public service and national service and being a part of something bigger than myself.”

The 9/11 terrorist attacks happened during the first week of Crow’s senior year of college. He switched to an active duty contract, and finished college in May 2002 as a distinguished military graduate of the ROTC. That designation meant he got to choose his branch of the military and his assignment, so he selected the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

Crow went to Fort Benning for infantry school, airborne school and Ranger School, and finished all three before the 2002 holiday season. Ranger School is the Army’s “toughest course,” and hones skills over 62 days “directly related to units whose mission is to engage the enemy in close combat and direct fire battle.”

Crow remembers walking into his commander’s office when he reported to his first assignment in January 2003 and experiencing what he called a “bucket of cold water moment,” when the reality and the gravity of what he signed up for became clear.

“He looked at me and he said … ‘Standing outside is your platoon of paratroopers. We’re going to war in a couple of months. That’s your platoon, train them well, train them hard and don’t let us down.’”

In March, Crow led his platoon of about 50 paratroopers in the invasion of Iraq. They started in Nasiriyah, and then fought in Samawah, which Crow said ended up being a week-long battle, “house to house, street to street.”

The battle of Samawah was the most intense urban combat the 82nd Airborne Division had experienced since World War II, Crow said. That is where he earned his Bronze Star for leading his platoon in capturing the Highway 8 bridge over the Euphrates River.

The unit traveled through various other parts of Iraq before moving into Baghdad, where Crow and his platoon spent the rest of 2003 in counterinsurgency and guerrilla warfare.

After spending time back in the U.S. for additional ranger training, Crow went on two tours in Afghanistan in 2004 after he was recruited to join the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment. The Army’s website says the regiment specializes “in combat missions deep inside enemy territory — a task only the best-trained can carry out in this branch of the elite Special Operations Forces.”

Crow was part of the 75th Ranger Regiment’s Joint Special Operations Task Force assigned to capturing Osama Bin Laden. He spent the year in southeastern Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan fighting the Haqqani Network.

Now serving on the U.S. House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, Crow, who went on to become a lawyer before seeking elected office, is now tasked with reviewing military actions. After seeing as part of a committee inquiry the full footage of a U.S. strike in September on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, he said he believed a follow-up strike that killed two survivors clinging to boat wreckage was illegal.

U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, who is a few weeks away from giving birth to her second child, is leading an effort to allow new parents to vote remotely in Congress.

Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, is unable to fly to Washington, D.C., due to medical and travel restrictions toward the end of pregnancy, leaving her unable to vote on legislation. She will be the 14th member of Congress to give birth while in office, and the first from Colorado.

A bipartisan resolution she introduced would allow proxy voting for House members who are new parents, a measure she says is necessary to make Congress more accessible.

“I’m grateful for the bipartisan partnership on something that the American people and our constituents overwhelmingly believe is common sense, and that you shouldn’t be precluded from doing your job just because you’re having a baby,” Pettersen told Newsline on Wednesday. “There are ways that we can allow proxy voting with the guardrails necessary so it’s (for) rare circumstances like this, and this is an important step forward to modernizing Congress and addressing the needs of the workforce of today.”

Pettersen was in D.C. for the start of the 119th Congress, but flew back to Colorado last week, the last week she was able to fly. The House clerk marked her as “not voting” on eight pieces of legislation since Monday, including a measure that would bar transgender students from participating on women’s school sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

The resolution is co-sponsored by Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, Sara Jacobs, a California Democrat, and Mike Lawler, a New York Republican. House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat, also sponsored the measure.

“No parent should have to choose between caring for their child, or recovering from childbirth, and fulfilling their duties in Congress to represent their constituents,” Luna said in a statement. “Congress needs to get with the times. This bipartisan proposal is vital in promoting a pro-family Washington, where every American has a voice and the unwavering representation they deserve.”

During her first term, Jacobs froze her eggs and “delayed starting a family partly because of the demands of this job and the constant travel,” she said in a statement. Allowing voting by proxy for new parents is a small step to make the federal government more representative of the country, she said.

The representatives wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson in December asking him to add a provision in the rules of the 119th Congress allowing for proxy voting.

“We have to modernize Congress to make sure that the life experiences and the backgrounds of the people we represent are actually represented at the federal level,” Pettersen said. “It’s just unacceptable that there are no accommodations, and completely unfair that I’m unable to vote and do my job just because I’m having a child … It just shouldn’t be this way, and there’s very obvious steps forward in addressing it.”

If leadership doesn’t bring the resolution to a vote, sponsors will force a vote on it through a discharge petition 30 legislative days after it was introduced, Pettersen said. That would require 218 signatures in support of the resolution.

As a state lawmaker, Pettersen, after she had her first child, led legislation to allow Colorado parents to take paid leave. Colorado law previously restricted legislator pay for extended absences, so Pettersen had to categorize her absence as a “chronic illness” in order to be paid. She was the first Colorado legislator to request parental leave.

Election equipment passwords were improperly disclosed on the Colorado secretary of state’s website starting on June 21, meaning they were accessible online when Colorado’s June 25 primary election took place, according to Jena Griswold, the secretary of state.

The passwords previously were reported to have been exposed since at least early August.

Decision 2024: On-the-ground election coverage in Colorado and by local reporters in all 50 states. Fair. Fearless. Free.

Griswold disclosed on Tuesday that a document posted to her office’s website included a hidden but accessible worksheet containing Basic Input Output System — or BIOS — passwords. Her office said in a news release Monday that the staff member responsible for posting the spreadsheet had left their position “amicably” before state officials discovered the passwords were exposed.

“Through the Department’s assessment, it was determined that a former staff member created a spreadsheet that contained the passwords in a hidden tab,” the news release says. “Storing passwords in this manner is not in line with the Department’s required data security practices and training.”

Griswold’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the leak might have affected the primary election.

Griswold’s office removed the spreadsheet from its website immediately after it learned of the disclosure on Thursday, Oct. 24. A week later, eight staff members from the Colorado Department of State and an additional 22 state cybersecurity employees were dispatched to affected counties to complete the process of changing the passwords.

The Libertarian Party of Colorado filed a lawsuit Friday asking Denver District Court to order a hand count of general election ballots in affected counties. The election is Tuesday.

The secretary determined election equipment in 34 of Colorado’s 64 counties were affected by the leak. Griswold asserted that Colorado elections have “many layers of security” and voters will still be able to safely have their vote counted on Election Day despite the breach.

“Ensuring that Colorado’s elections are secure and accessible has been and will always be our top priority, which is why the Department of State, along with County Clerks and election workers across the state, address any and every potential risk to our elections with the utmost seriousness,” Griswold, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I am regretful for this error. I am dedicated to making sure we address this matter fully and that mistakes of this nature never happen again.”

Both Republican and Democratic county clerks have also said that Tuesday’s election is secure, particularly since a person must be physically present to use a BIOS password, and election equipment is kept in protected locations.

The secretary of state’s office consulted with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Dominion Voting Systems after learning of the leak. Dominion machines are used in 62 counties. Staff also investigated web traffic to the subpage where the spreadsheet was posted and determined the data disclosure did not pose an immediate security threat.

The statement says the department first learned of the leak from “a voting machines vendor.”

An unnamed law firm will conduct an outside investigation of the breach to determine how it happened, how future leaks could be prevented and to recommend improved practices and procedures. Griswold’s office will release findings as allowed by law, and all staff will undergo additional cybersecurity training.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and X.

A Florida man charged with threatening local election officials faces another charge this week for threats made against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.

U.S. officials in Florida charged Richard Glenn Kantwill four times with making interstate threats against election officials, with the latest charge stemming from threats he made against Griswold.

Kantwill referred to Griswold as his “number 1 target” the day after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Colorado case that sought to disqualify former President Donald Trump from the ballot under a Civil War-era insurrection clause. The court ruled Trump’s name must appear on the state’s ballots as states do not have the authority to enforce the clause. Trump is the 2024 Republican presidential candidate.

The secretary of state’s office said the threats from Kantwill used “racist, misogynistic, sexist and vulgar slurs.” Griswold received more than 1,000 violent or death threats since the case, in which she was not a plaintiff, was filed in September 2023.

“Threats of political violence towards election officials are unacceptable and must stop,” Griswold said in a statement. “I refuse to be intimidated and will continue to make sure every eligible Republican, Democrat, and Unaffiliated voter can make their voices heard in our elections. I appreciate law enforcement’s efforts on these cases.”

The U.S. District Court, District of Colorado on Wednesday accepted a guilty plea from Teak Brockbank, a Cortez man who was also charged in August with making interstate threats against election officials, including Griswold. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2025.

Brockbank shared social media posts in 2022 that said he would seek to execute Griswold and others, referring to how Griswold addressed former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters’ election equipment security breach. A judge recently sentenced Peters, who was convicted of felony crimes in the case, to nine years of incarceration. Griswold’s office investigated Peters and took legal actions to block her from overseeing elections.

A new report from The Sentencing Project estimates more than 18,000 Coloradans serving time for a felony conviction in prison or jail won’t be able to vote in the 2024 election.

The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit that advocates minimizing imprisonment and criminalization, estimates that of those who lose their right to vote while incarcerated in Colorado, about 18% are Black and about 30% are Latino. Those percentages are higher than the percentage of each group in the population of Colorado: According to census data, about 5% of Colorado’s overall population is Black and about 23% is Latino.

According to the “Locked Out 2024” report, which used data from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 17,000 people in state prisons and about 1,500 people in local jails don’t have the right to vote while incarcerated for a felony conviction in Colorado. The report includes only people incarcerated in Colorado state prisons and local jails, not federal prisons.

While the “Locked Out 2024” report looks at how people with criminal convictions around the country are disenfranchised, The Sentencing Project released a Colorado-specific report in April that said the state bans Black residents from voting at a rate seven times that of white residents.

Kyle Giddings, civic engagement coordinator at the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, said the numbers show how disproportionately people of color are excluded from voting due to being incarcerated.

“This is not only an issue of making sure people have a voice in their democracy, it’s a racial justice issue, making sure people that are being disproportionately punished by the criminal justice system, which we’ve seen historically happen across the nation and here in Colorado, have a voice in the reforms,” Giddings said.

He noted that a measure on the Colorado ballot this year is related to parole, an issue that directly affects people within the criminal justice system but on which those incarcerated on felony convictions will have no say. There’s also a ballot measure that would create an exception to the right to bail for criminal defendants accused of first-degree murder.

“Ninety-fiver percent of people that are in prisons will go home one day, and they should be able to have a voice in their communities that they’re going home to,” Giddings said. “It just doesn’t make sense to cut out folks who are working on rehabilitating themselves and working on becoming good citizens from being part of the Democratic system and having their voices heard by being able to vote.”

Colorado returns the right to vote to people with felony convictions once they are finished serving their sentence. Maine, Vermont and Puerto Rico never take away the right to vote.

The Colorado Legislature approved a new law that will require certain counties to implement a day of in-person voting for those who are eligible in local jails. Denver already held in-person voting in its jails prior to the new law, and for its 2023 municipal elections the confined voter turnout was just under 80%, compared to a 38% turnout for the entire election.

“We have the proof to show that they care about what’s happening in their communities,” Giddings said. “We’ve had many races across Colorado be decided by only a couple hundred votes.”

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and X.

Eli Bremer filed a lawsuit against the original Colorado Republican Party executive board members who continue to reject the results of a vote that organizers say ousted them and installed Bremer as the new state party chair.

Dave Williams, Hope Scheppelman and Anna Ferguson — the executive board members all elected in 2023 — are named as defendants, and El Paso County Republican Party Vice Chair Todd Watkins and Jefferson County Republican Party Chair Nancy Pallozzi are named as plaintiffs alongside Bremer and the party. Watkins and Pallozzi led the effort to oust Williams as chair and gathered enough signatures to hold a meeting and vote on Aug. 24.

“Defendants — the officers removed — refuse to acknowledge their removal and continue to exercise control over party property including bank accounts, office space, and web domains,” the lawsuit says. “This lawsuit seeks to vindicate the party’s control over its own affairs and leadership.”

Bremer told Newsline the lawsuit was filed against Williams personally on behalf of the party, so Williams cannot use any party legal resources in his response.

Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At an Aug. 24 meeting with central committee members, an overwhelming majority of the credentialed members present — about 180 people of the 400-plus central committee membership — voted to remove Williams and elected Bremer chair. Williams claims that meeting and vote were “fraudulent” and invalid, and he plans to hold a meeting with the same purpose Saturday in Castle Rock, despite members at the Aug. 24 meeting voting to cancel it.

If a meeting is held Saturday, Bremer said it won’t be considered a legal meeting of the central committee.

“They can pretend that they’re the United States Congress, the government of Venezuela, or the Colorado Republican Party — it has absolutely no legal bearing,” Bremer said.

The group first attempted to meet over the issue at the end of July, but Williams sued and an Arapahoe County judge issued a temporary restraining order to block the meeting. The judge ultimately concluded that the courts do not have jurisdiction over the internal party matter.

“Under Colorado law, the courts have no jurisdiction to interfere in internal party disputes, but once a party has made a final determination, the courts have the right to enforce that action,” Bremer said.

Bremer’s lawsuit, filed in El Paso County district court, asks the court to declare the Aug. 24 meeting and its results valid, and all party actions from defendants that occurred after that meeting invalid. Bremer, former chair of the El Paso County Republicans, has already taken action asserting himself as party chair, setting up a “satellite” office and working with county GOP chairs to order yard signs and handouts for former President Donald Trump’s campaign. He said he’s confident the courts will back him and the newly elected party leadership.

“We’ve made sure every step along the way we followed the right procedures,” Bremer said. “The actions of the former officers are nothing short of bizarre … We followed the law and they’re just making stuff up.”

Bremer said the situation with Williams parallels what happened with the Michigan Republican Party earlier this year, and their new chair has been “very helpful” to him throughout this process. Members of the party voted to remove former chair Kristina Karamo, and she refused to step down claiming the vote was illegitimate. A legal battle between Karamo and new chair Pete Hoekstra is still ongoing.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and X.

A new letter from election security experts calls on federal officials to investigate the connection between voting system breaches in Georgia to breaches in other states, including Colorado, and warns of similar threats to 2024 election security.

Free Speech For People, a legal advocacy organization, joined the group Black Voters Matter and a coalition of election and computer security experts in signing the letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Wray and Special Counsel Jack Smith on Monday.

The letter says the 2020 Coffee County, Georgia breach that prosecutors have tied to former President Donald Trump’s legal team is “just one element of a much broader, coordinated plan that involved many of the same actors engaging in the same unlawful activities in the pursuit of unauthorized copies of voting system software from multiple states.”

In Colorado, former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters will go on trial in February on a variety of charges related to a security breach during an election systems software update in 2021, when sensitive data was copied and system passwords were photographed and posted online.

“People that actively tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election have crossed legal lines to obtain copies of voting system software, and they have had it now for nearly three years,” Susan Greenhalgh, senior advisor for election security at Free Speech For People, said in a statement. “Our federal law enforcement agencies cannot ignore the threat this poses to future elections, and must initiate an investigation immediately.”

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold reiterated that Colorado’s elections are safe and secure.

“As part of the attack on democracy, bad actors have tried to steal and copy election system information across the nation to use to further spread their conspiracies,” Griswold said about the letter in an email. “Bad actors who break the law should be held accountable.”

Separately on Friday, the Colorado County Clerks Association executive board sent a letter to officials across the state encouraging them to stand up for Colorado’s election security as many continue to undermine the integrity of voting systems.

“Unfortunately, it is clear that those who spread lies and distrust of our institutions aren’t going away and, in some cases, are better resourced and louder than ever,” the letter from the CCCA read. “We need you now to come forward and help us correct the record and regain trust taken from our elections by bullies and bad actors through a concerted national and statewide effort to deceive, not through any problems with our actual voting systems.”

The CCCA’s letter comes after the Colorado Republican Party last month sent a message to supporters repeating baseless allegations of “systemic fraud” and advising county canvass boards to not certify results from the Nov. 7 statewide election.

Matt Crane, executive director of the CCCA, said the association sent the letter to all of Colorado’s federal and state elected officials and are working on sending it to county officials, too.

Griswold said she will always work to protect Colorado elections and make sure every voters’ voices are heard as secretary of state.

“I commend the Colorado County Clerks Association for calling on all elected officials to stand up against bad actors who seek to undermine confidence in our elections,” Griswold said.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.

The Colorado Supreme Court agreed to consider appeals in a case over whether former President Donald Trump should be barred from the state’s 2024 primary ballot. The Denver-based court Tuesday scheduled oral argument for Dec. 6.

The case stems from a lawsuit filed by six Colorado voters who argue that Trump is disqualified from office under a Civil War-era insurrection clause in the 14th Amendment due to his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Both parties appealed a Denver District Court decision from earlier this month that said Trump should be placed on Colorado’s March presidential primary ballot.

Although Judge Sarah B. Wallace ruled that Trump “engaged in insurrection” within the meaning of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — which prohibits a person who did so after taking an oath to support the Constitution from holding office again — she held that the clause does not apply to the presidency.

Each side will have one hour to present its oral argument starting at 1 p.m. Dec. 6 in the Supreme Court courtroom.

Trump’s team appealed with the hope that a higher court will reverse Wallace’s finding, among other points of her decision it disagrees with, that the Republican presidential frontrunner engaged in insurrection, despite her ordering that his name appear on the ballot.

On the other hand, the plaintiffs want to see the ruling that Section 3 does not apply to the presidency reversed.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.