With millions of early ballots cast before Election Day, there were minimal lines during the day Nov. 3, 2020, in Aurora. A lone voter casts his in-person ballot at the polling center at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds. Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado 
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., talks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021, looking back a year later at his experience during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) 
Clerk of the House Cheryl Johnson, left, and House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving pass through Statuary Hall at the Capitol to deliver the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the Senate, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. Following are impeachment managers, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., left, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., and other managers Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) 
Colorado Attorney General Phil WeiserPHOTO BY PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado 
Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., read the final certification of Electoral College votes cast in November’s presidential election during a joint session of Congress after working through the night, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, Pool) 
The House gallery is empty after it was evacuated as rioters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) 
Trump supporters try to break through a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) 
Supporters of then-President Donald Trump try to break through a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) 
A rioter pours water on herself at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) 
Then-President Donald Trump gestures as he arrives to speak at a rally in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) 
Supporters loyal to then-President Donald Trump attend a rally on the Ellipse near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
AURORA | One year after Trump-incited rioters stormed the Capitol in an effort to change the outcome of the 2020 election, local activists, elected officials, and people in charge of elections worry the consequences of the insurrection may be far reaching and the first of more attacks on U.S. democracy.
“What we cannot ever forget is that Jan. 6 is not a one-off unique event. It was an effort to undermine the peaceful transition of power, which means it’s one of the darkest days in American history. That had never happened before. And it could happen again,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser warned during a virtual roundtable hosted by Congressman Jason Crow this week.
Weiser, who argued a case before the Supreme Court about faithless electors in 2020, was asked during arguments what would happen if a state legislature sought to overturn the will of voters after Election Day and reallocate electors to a different candidate.
“That wasn’t before the court in the case. But it was a relevant issue. Because the question before the court was what is the exact extent of the authority that state legislatures have over electors? And I said they can tell electors they need to do what they said they’re going to do,” Weiser said during the roundtable.
“They need to vote for the will of people. That’s what Colorado requires. That’s now something that the Supreme Court has given its imprimatur to. That case did not decide the scary issue that could come back before the court: Could a state undermine the will of the people and pick a different winner than the people picked? That is a threat we face,” he said.
Colorado is often lauded as a “gold standard” for elections for its mail-in paper ballot system that automatically mails a ballot to every registered voter and allows residents to register and vote in-person up until polls close.
Still, the insurrection and rampant mis-and-disinformation about the election process have plagued election offices across the state. Arapahoe County Clerk Joan Lopez said during Crow’s roundtable that her staff have received violent threats, constant emails doubting the Dominion voting system the department uses to count ballots, and, in once instance in Littleton, people with guns attempted to intimidate voters at a ballot drop box.
“Jan. 6 has affected my office and my election workers tremendously,” she said. “But I think that as long as we keep people informed and we are transparent about everything that’s going on with elections, I think that we can make sure that nothing else happens like this.”
Insurrections stormed the Capitol claiming that the election was fraudulent and sought to keep former President Donald Trump in power.
Crow was in the House Chamber while insurrectionists banged on the doors. He told the Sentinel two days after the attack he was prepared to fight his way out of the chamber only armed with a pen. The former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan helped fellow members of Congress remove pins identifying them as elected officials.
“I haven’t felt that way in 15 years,” he said last year. “When I was doing that work (in the military) it was my job. I wasn’t mentally and emotionally ready to be put in that position as a member of Congress in the U.S. Capitol in 2021.”
In the days after the event, Crow called for Trump’s impeachment again. He asked for more mental health resources for those involved in the Capitol breach, that justice be served to the rioters, and he led the call for an investigation into the attack.
“America and the world need to see hundreds if not thousands of photos of people being led away in handcuffs,” he said days after the insurrection.
Since, more than 700 people have been charged with crimes related to the riot.
Activists, particularly those in communities of color, say it’s more important now more than ever to empower people to vote or get involved in the democratic process. Aurora NAACP President Omar Montgomery said the organization just received a social justice grant, which will be used exclusively for voter outreach efforts.
“Our goal, 100%, is to register as many people as possible between now and our primaries. And after the primaries for the general election,” he said. “That is our goal. We are committed. We have a team that we will be putting out at every single event to do voter-registration-slash -voter-education, so that people are not getting caught up in the social media conspiracies, and believing some of these things are taking place that can erode our faith and our voting process.”
Likewise Salvador Hernandez, state director Mi Familia Vota, said during the roundtable that instilling voter confidence is important in the Latino community, even for people who cannot yet vote due to their immigration status.
“I’m not a U.S. citizen yet. I will hopefully be able to vote in the next presidential election, once I am able to become a citizen, but I haven’t let that discourage me,” he said. “And I think that’s a great lesson to learn and something that I preach everywhere I go, particularly with young students when we go to schools. I say even if you cannot participate in the process, it is also our duty to defend the electoral process and right to vote.”
Not one person has been charged with insurrection. And let’s not ignore the evidence that the FBI had people in the crowd inciting them to enter the Capitol. Your article is BS. But that is par for this biased rag.
What evidence? Is Hannity your reliable source? Are you denying that this was an insurrection? What would you call it?
If any of the rioters have actually been charged with insurrection, and even convicted on those charges, feel free to list their names. Because “insurrection” has a very specific meaning in the justice system, irrespective of what left-liberal neurotics might think, and those kinds of charges were only going to be brought if the DoJ thought they could actually get a conviction if it went to trial. The vast majority of those charged have been for things like obstruction, trespassing, and property damage, not insurrection.
As to the claims of your side that we almost fell into a dictatorship, in what universe would this have actually been possible? Pulling something like that off requires, *at the bare minimum,* near-universal support of the military establishment from the generals down to the ground-pounders, to ensure order is kept, dissenters are rounded up and jailed, and the rule is enforced through martial law for a period of time after the takeover. See: pretty much any Third World coup in the last 70 years. In a best case scenario for an effort like that, the media organs are quickly taken over and dedicated to pumping out propaganda for the regime, while the bureaucracy falls in line or finds themselves hauled off to a wall and shot. Intel agencies begin quickly rooting out dissenters and making them disappear.
How on earth would Trump or his handlers have achieved any of this? The military brass are a bunch of corporate CEOs now, not warriors, and had a barely-functioning relationship with Trump as it was. The intel agencies hated his guts, the mass media with a few exceptions is almost entirely run by Democrat elites, and the bureaucracy itself is lined top to bottom with people who vote Democrat. Protest groups had already been prepped and ready to start trouble in the event Trump actually won the election, much less tried to establish a no-kidding dictatorship. How, exactly, would he have been able to successfully do this with nearly every single requirement to actually pull one off and make it stick stacked against him?
It will most likely never happen again, because autocratic lawmakers are, as I write, putting in place people, voting restrictions and processes that will assure they never lose another election at any level. The Supreme Court will be comprised of 9 of their fellow autocrats, and the Constitution will be reinterpreted in their likeness. Then, at last we will have the kind of country for which they have been striving for so long. Won’t we all be happy then?
Yes, Joe, I’ll be happy then. It will be a better, for all, USA. If it does happen like that, I wonder, what country you will move to, as you surely will leave.
You’re exactly the kind of anti-American, anti-democracy, violent lunatic that drives the hateful rhetoric of the right. You’d rather overthrow the government with violence than accept that your false god Trump lost the election.
“It will most likely never happen again, because autocratic lawmakers are, as I write, putting in place people, voting restrictions and processes that will assure they never lose another election at any level.”
Old and busted: “More immigration will guarantee those yucky white conservatives will never win an election again!”
New hotness: “Those yucky white conservatives are trying to ensure that they never lose another election!”
The left wants this to happen because they feed off of violence! You should be very careful for what you ask for libs!
It wasn’t liberals who stormed our Capitol, beat police, called for a hanging, and tried to stage a coup to overthrow our government.
No, your side just bombed the building in 1971 and 1983.
We are certainly divided as to what is protests and what is terror in the streets. Blick lies matters can burn and loot, injure and kill police and citizens…. and that is ok. Republican grannies can go to jail for showing up at the capital. We as a people need to co-exist -need lawfullness- not lawlessness- applied evenly. Loot, burn rob and destroy and you are out without bail in 10 minutes and most likely never to be prosecuted. Show up because you feel/think or know something funny is happening at the voting box- and be arrested and held in jail for a year without DUE PROCESS. We can argue forever if one or the other is elected- Hillery dickerly doc did- so did Donald. We should know the human race cheats when they can- on tests and in elections. The goal if to make it transparent. If boxes of ballots come in under the cover of darkness or observers need telescopes to make sure counts are true- that is wrong. If the documentation is destroyed- it doesn’t matter how many times you count garbage in- it is still garbage out.There should be concern… we need to feel a “democratic” process (now matter how tilted) is fair. It takes diligence.
As for Jason Crow- he is mostly a joke. He claims to be much more than he is. He was hiding under his desk- not fighting with a pen. I find this an interesting statement for someone that the Military has built into a fighting man of today. His achievements are very slight if you look at his record. I as a retired military I would not want him leading or behind me! He pushed to get out of Afghanistan, he pushed to impeach a Commander in Chief instead of up holding his “sworn” duty ( Democrats started that before he even was elected) He pushes programs that will bankrupt the US”citizen” while participating in the mass over-running of the border He claims lots of help for His group- but when I tried to have him consider something I get an email telling me it is UNLAWFUL FOR ME TO THREATEN A POLITICIAN…. I was asking a damn question. HOW CAN ANYONE RESPECT THAT BS?