When you saw the stunning news that a former Republican election official had purchased Dominion Voting Systems, did your heart — like mine — skip more than a few beats?
I mean, what the hell?
Did the conspiracy theorists finally come up with a solution for dealing with their phony charges of rigged elections by buying the company that supplies voting machines in more than half the states — so they could rig elections themselves just in time for the 2026 midterms?
For years — since the 2020 election, anyway — Denver-based Dominion, whose machines are used in 60 of 64 Colorado counties, has been bashed by MAGA world as a corrupt system, linked by fantasists to the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and allegedly rigged to allow sneaky Democrats to somehow steal elections.
Yes, it’s as crazy as the Pillow Guy who has nearly bankrupted himself — he tells a judge, “I’m in ruins” — trying to prove the phony theory.
It’s as vile as the right-wing propagandists who repeated and attempted to validate the phony theories. Fox News had to agree to pay Dominion $787 million for its crimes against journalism, and not incidentally, truth. Newsmax got off easier with a $67 million settlement.
And yet, that was a major part of the Trump conspiracy theory holding — as you may remember — that the 2020 election was rigged. Amazingly, or maybe not, Trump still insists on that. It remains a purity test in MAGA circles, so much so that it’s the rare Republican official who will debunk the oft-debunked and ridiculed conspiracy theory.
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You can see why many Republicans, including those who know better, publicly stick with the Trump theory of the case. If they didn’t, they’d lose their MAGA membership card and perhaps worse, although I’m trying to imagine what could be worse for craven Trump sycophants than to be kicked out of the fan club.
It’s fishy all right. Not only did Scott Leiendecker, a former Republican elections director in St. Louis, buy Dominion, but he immediately changed the name to a very MAGA-sounding Liberty Vote.
And in the press release announcing the sale, Liberty Vote said it would follow the executive order that Trump signed last spring that addressed the full range of Trump rigged-vote fantasies. It won’t surprise you that several federal judges have put the order on hold on account of the many ways it violates the, uh, Constitution.
Scary?
According to many of Colorado’s state election clerks, it’s not nearly as scary as it sounds. Liberty Vote might be kowtowing to Trump in its press release, but the voting machines are solid, we’re told, the processes are solid and the state’s auditing system is solid.
Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, told Colorado Newsline, “We have multiple safeguards in place to make sure the systems are functioning properly and audited properly.” He added, “And nothing’s going to change that.”
Let’s hope that Crane is right, that nothing much will change. And I’m guessing that would include MAGA world’s view on voting machines in general, or, for that matter, just plain old voting — as the Trumpian Supreme Court now seems ready to shred the few remaining vestiges of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
That may be much scarier than it sounds. If the conservative court does rule against the act as expected, it would mean that states could likely redistrict without having to account for historical racial bias, meaning there would be fewer Black members of Congress, meaning, well, you know what it means. I wish the late Rep. John Lewis were here to explain it to you.
Which brings us, strangely, to the GOP governor’s race to select a nominee to run in 2026 to succeed term-limited Jared Polis.
This election, when the two parties choose their candidates, won’t have to be rigged by a so-called corrupted voting machine. The result, I’m predicting, is already baked in.
If you watched the recent GOP debate — or, more likely, just saw the clips — you know what I’m talking about.
We start with a Republican who wasn’t there. Her name is Tina Peters, the former Mesa County elections clerk who couldn’t make it because she is serving nine years in prison for allowing unauthorized entry into a secure elections area where, coincidentally, there was ready access to the Dominion voting machines.
That wasn’t just Peters, at the Pillow Guy’s request, taking rogue action. It was plainly illegal.
And yet there’s a thriving “Free Tina” MAGA movement, led by Trump himself, who calls her a martyr and a patriot and a hero and wonders how she could go to prison while, in his words, “Far-Left Attorney General Phil Weiser ignores illegals committing Violent Crimes like Rape and Murder in his State.”
For good measure, Trump called the Peters trial — which took place in dead-red Mesa County — a “Communist persecution.”
But this is not just another right-wing descent into the rabbit hole. It explains why the rabbit-hole Republicans have so little sway in Colorado, and it’s more than the demographic changes in the state. Trump has lost three times in Colorado, the last two elections by double figures. Democrats, meanwhile, have won the last two gubernatorial elections by, yes, double figures. Can you spot a trend?
Back when Republicans ruled Colorado, Democrats still won elections by nominating moderates. If you see any GOP moderates in the state — I know there are some — encourage them to run for something. Whatever your politics — and you know mine — one-party rule is not good for, as we say, good governing.
The frustrating thing for Trump is that he can’t pardon Peters — as he did, say, the J6 insurrectionists and any numbers of criminal cronies — because she was tried and convicted in a state court by a jury of her peers, who proved that being a Peters peer doesn’t mean you have to be nuts.
A governor can pardon her, though. And when the question was put to the Republican candidates for governor at a recent forum, nearly all of them tripped over themselves to assure voters that Peters would go free if they were elected.
The only semi-holdout was state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, who didn’t say no, but she didn’t say yes. In a classic political waffle, Kirkmeyer answered, “If presented with new facts, I would consider it.”
And if presented with “new facts” that, say, the earth was flat, I’m guessing Kirkmeyer would say she would consider them, too, if MAGA world insisted.
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Here’s how Judge Matthew Barrett, evidently not a flat earther, saw the facts as presented at trial: He told Peters, “You’re no hero. You’re a charlatan who used and is still using your prior position to peddle a snake oil that’s been proven to be junk time and time again.”
Kirkmeyer is the old-line Colorado Republican establishment pick for the nomination — good to see you again, Gov. Owens — but the OGs are about as relevant in the state as the GOPs.
Owens, of course, was the last Republican governor elected. That was, checking the calendar, back in 2002— which, by most counts, is a lot of years ago.
And whatever happens with Dominion/Liberty Vote and the new owner, I’m pretty sure of one thing: Unless the state GOP changes dramatically, it might just be another 20-some years before Colorado elects another Republican governor.
Mike Littwin has been a columnist for too many years to count. He has covered Dr. J, four presidential inaugurations, six national conventions and countless brain-numbing speeches in the New Hampshire and Iowa snow. Sign up for Mike’s newsletter.
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