Election Integrity Under Siege: Drop Box Watching, Dirty Voter Rolls, and RTD’s TABOR Grab

On October 17, 2024, Heidi Ganahl, Peter Bernegger, and Randall O’Toole joined the show. Discussed citizen volunteer training program for observing ballot drop boxes and legal battles with the Secretary of State over public observation rights Exposed how ERIC inflates voter rolls rather than cleaning them, detailed Colorado’s hundreds of thousands of voter registration irregularities, and announced settlement discussions with the Secretary of State.

Citizen Observers Take On Drop Box Security

Start listening at 18:27 – Hour 1

Heidi Ganahl, founder of Rocky Mountain Voice and former gubernatorial candidate, reveals how citizen volunteers are organizing to monitor ballot drop boxes across Colorado. After discovering that government video cameras lack sufficient resolution and proper positioning to serve as evidence, Ganahl and fellow volunteers developed a training program teaching Coloradans their legal rights as public observers.

The Secretary of State initially attempted to restrict citizen observation through burdensome registration requirements and bans on photography. After legal pushback from a former Secretary of State acting as attorney, the office reversed course just hours before a planned federal lawsuit. Ganahl emphasizes that volunteers will follow all laws, avoid voter intimidation, and simply fill the accountability gap left by inadequate government surveillance.

“We want to restore trust in our vote. We want to give the citizens of Colorado a way to get engaged where they can feel like they’re making a difference.”

Heidi Ganahl, Founder of Rocky Mountain Voice

The ERIC Voter Registration Scam Exposed

Start listening at 33:14 – Hour 1

Peter Bernegger, founder of the Wisconsin Center for Election Justice, exposes how the Electronic Registration Information Center has transformed from a voter roll maintenance organization into a liberal voter registration operation. ERIC receives Colorado’s complete voter file every 60 days for free, then passes personally identifiable information to its sister nonprofit SEER to scan social media and identify liberal voters for targeted registration outreach.

Bernegger’s team discovered Colorado’s voter rolls contain hundreds of thousands of irregularities including registrations at UPS stores, deceased voters, and people who moved out of state years ago. When confronted with evidence, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Beall dismissed the concerns in a letter claiming the rolls were clean. A subsequent data purchase proved that claim false, and now the Secretary of State’s office has proposed settlement discussions.

The Wisconsin Center has filed lawsuits in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, with the ERIC membership agreement lawsuit potentially impacting all 24 remaining member states including Colorado. Page 16 of that agreement prohibits member states from sharing information about illegal aliens registered to vote.

“When you have dirty voter rolls, which generally you can say they’re inflated, you have dirty elections, because what do you need to cast a fraudulent ballot? You’ve got to start with a name, address, voter ID number.”

Peter Bernegger, Wisconsin Center for Election Justice

RTD Wants Your TABOR Refunds Permanently

Start listening at 72:14 – Hour 2

Randall O’Toole, transportation policy expert and author of the Anti-Planner blog at TI.org, dissects RTD’s ballot measure to permanently waive TABOR refund requirements. Despite reducing service by 25 percent since 2019, RTD spent 4 percent more money on operations. Ridership has plummeted 35 percent since the pandemic as remote work reduced downtown commuting.

RTD’s fundamental flaw remains its downtown orientation. With less than 10 percent of Denver metro jobs located downtown, the entire rail and bus network serves a shrinking market while ignoring the 97 percent of workers employed elsewhere. O’Toole advocates for nonstop express bus routes connecting suburban employment centers rather than fixed rail lines that take a decade to plan and cannot adapt to changing commute patterns.

The conversation extends to affordable housing policy, where O’Toole explains how RTD’s transit-oriented development requirements have driven up construction costs. Building five-story apartments near rail stations costs twice as much per square foot as two-story buildings, resulting in 54 percent higher per-unit costs between 2019 and 2023. The result is fewer affordable units built even as taxpayers spend more money.

“It seems to me that RTD is one of the worst managed agencies in Colorado.”

Randall O’Toole, Transportation Policy Expert