Opinions are one thing, everyone has one; however, misconstruing the facts in a letter for political purposes is a wholly different matter. From behind her turned off camera on Zoom, Ms. Bruell, in her official role as the Chair of the Garfield County Democratic Party, recently attempted to herd the Board of County Commissioners into a box of her making. On Monday, Jan. 8, Ms. Bruell brought a letter to the Commissioners attention penned by the Colorado County Clerks Association (CCCA) on Dec. 8, 2023. This letter was addressed to Colorado Elected Officials that was intended to bolster and highlight  the integrity of the Colorado’s election process as fair and accurate.  

However, Ms. Bruell has misread and misconstrued the point of the CCCA letter for her political convenience stating the letter compels the County Commissioners and all elected officials to proactively take a position that the 2020 Presidential Election was not stolen, and that Mr. Biden was duly elected as the President of the United States through a fair and just election. Inconveniently for Ms. Bruell, the letter does not request the Commissioners make any such statement. Further, the Post Independent continues to provide her a routine platform to publish misinformation without vetting the facts.    

What the letter does do is to ask elected officials when faced with assertions as to the fairness of  elections, to take that opportunity to explain key structural and mechanical components of our elections that include the facts that Colorado’s elections are run by professionals, conducted by multi-partisan poll workers and are transparent.

Nothing could be further than the truth here in Garfield County where our Clerk & Recorder, fully supported by the Commissioners, ran all facets of an exceptional 2020 election with the highest integrity.  The letter goes on to state there are a few things that elected officials can do to help to defend our election integrity. Namely, if faced with contrary opinions, you can 1) defend our elections as fair and accurate, 2) reach out to our local Clerk and Recorder if you need more information and 3) encourage members of the community to participate as election judges. We already do this.   

It’s worth noting prior to the 2020 elections, the County Commissioners, through thoughtful diligence and out of an abundance of caution, chose to implement our new local voting system known as Clear Ballot at the recommendation of then County Clerk Jean Alberico, a Democrat, in 2018. This was continued wise thinking on the part of our local elected officials to ensure election integrity. We also had some citizens appear before the Commissioners concerned over the validity of the 2020 elections and the Commissioners defended the County’s election system then as they do now.

I responded to Ms. Bruell’s continued attack by simply and accurately stating that I can only comment on the integrity of Garfield County elections and have no knowledge of other election locations around the United States. Further, I reminded Ms. Bruell that the electoral college, as is its duty, elected President Biden who is our President and there you have it.

Unfortunately, Ms. Bruell remained unsatisfied with that answer. She preferred to misapply the message in this CCCA letter as a vehicle to force the Commissioners to opine on the validity of other election offices nationwide for which they have no knowledge. An impossible request.

Ms. Bruell also inaccurately asserts the Commissioners are acting hypocritically when they stated the Board does not take formal positions on national issues such as this when they very clearly engage in many federal and state matters of concern. 

To be sure, the BOCC does actively participate in many state and federal issues because those federal decisions directly affect the socio-economic wellbeing of all of our citizens particularly on federal land use issues since 2/3^rd of Garfied County is public land. Not only is the Board engaged, in fact, it’s their obligation under federal law.

More than that, all of the federal actions the BOCC is involved in are predominantly where the federal government invites the BOCC to participate as a Cooperating Agency as required by federal law. The same is true for state rule-making issues. Ms. Bruell’s assertion of hypocrisy is unfounded as she cannot distinguish between our required role engaging on substantive federal land policy concerns and Pollyannish politics.

As we all know, some citizens are quite pleased the Commissioners are engaged in federal actions for which they agree and others not so much. If you remain confused, just ask Glenwood Springs residents about how much they appreciate the County’s leadership and involvement with the Bureau of Land Management regarding the RMR limestone mine.  To be clear, there is no hypocrisy here. That is simply a misconstrued and ignorant opinion by Ms. Bruell who can’t seem to or wants to understand the difference. This CCCA letter is a political creature only that has no direct tangible bearing on our citizens.

It’s unfortunate Ms. Bruell decided to misconstrue the contents of the CCCA letter for her political gain and further exacerbate the political divide; to the contrary, she could have used the letter to praise the Commissioners and the Clerk and Recorder for our wise decision making in ensuring we maintain a high level of trust and integrity of our local election system for which they only can control. In the end, we agree with the final statement in the CCCA letter. In saying so, we invite Ms. Bruell to actually visit the Commissioners in person at their regular meeting rather than hiding behind Zoom with her camera off. As she quotes the CCCA letter, “now is the time for courage, not cowardice.”

John Martin is chairman of the Garfield County commissioners.