Latest news with #JenaGriswold
CBS News
6 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Colorado Secretary of State, election officials laud arrest in Archuleta County election equipment firebombing
Colorado election officials on Monday are praising the work of law enforcement in making an arrest in connection with a firebombing attack that targeted election equipment last month. The attack happened in the early morning hours of June 12, and on June 26, William Wayne Bryant, 71, of Archuleta County, was arrested. He's since posted a $10,000 surety bond but is due back in court on July 23 to face formal charges. He's facing charges of first-degree arson and possession of an explosive or incendiary device, both felonies. A statement from the Colorado Secretary of State's Office on Monday said Bryan publicly expressed "election conspiracies and anti-tax beliefs according to the affidavit for arrest warrant." CBS News Colorado has requested a copy of that report, but "according to the same affidavit, a 'Molotov cocktail-type device' was thrown into a room that holds voting equipment," the Secretary of State's Office said. "It is appalling that a Colorado elections office was firebombed, and even more so that the suspect has a history of spreading election conspiracies. Attacks on democratic institutions must be strongly condemned," Colorado's Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in that statement. "I take any threat to elections incredibly seriously, and thank law enforcement for their hard work on this case. We will support the Archuleta County Clerk's Office and ensure they are able to fully recover from this attack." Election workers and offices around the country have seen an increase in violence and violent threats since 2020, according to election officials and several organizations that track those trends. Those acts have led to election workers leaving those jobs in higher numbers than before. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, there has been 36% turnover nationwide, compared to 20 to 30% prior to 2020. In Colorado, it's even higher at nearly 40%. Analysis by CBS News found that 25 of Colorado's 64 counties have lost at least one top-level local election official since 2020, meaning 39% of those overseeing the presidential election this year are new to their job. "The Colorado County Clerks Association is grateful to federal, state, and local law enforcement and the Colorado Department of State for their prompt and professional response to this situation. While the investigation remains ongoing, we unequivocally condemn any deliberate act or threat of political violence," Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado Clerks Association, said in a statement on Monday. "Colorado's County Clerks and their teams serve as nonpartisan and trusted stewards of our democratic process. Any attempt to intimidate or harm them—or compromise their facilities—is an affront to democracy itself and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." Bryant's attorney, David Ottman, previously served as a prosecutor in the same judicial district where Bryant has been charged. Ottman did not immediately respond to a phone call or email seeking comment Monday morning.
CBS News
17-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Colorado suspends access to state election site to remove some information after Minnesota shootings
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold closed off access to the state's online election database, known as "TRACER," over the weekend, amid concerns about publicly available private information about politicians in the aftermath of the politically-motivated shootings and killings in Minnesota. "Addresses and other personal information is on TRACER," Griswold said. "The reason it's on there is for public transparency. There is the ability for elected officials and candidates to request that their addresses are redacted, and so we wanted to give folks enough time to do that, and temporarily took TRACER down." The site is where political candidates post their information to comply with election finance requirements, among other information. The site Monday carried the message, "Down for maintenance," which Griswold pointed out, does happen from time to time. After a few seconds on the error message, the website redirects you to another elections landing page on the Colorado Secretary of State's Office's website. TRACER, Colorado's online elections database, was taken down by the Colorado Secretary of State's Office as election officials and elected officials review private information on the site after the politically-motivated killing of a state representative and her husband and the shooting of a state senator and his wife in Minnesota. CBS She said she had talked with legislative leadership and other statewide elected leaders about the existence of the information on the public database. "Out of abundance of caution, we wanted to make sure that officials had the ability to think about whether they wanted their addresses redacted," Griswold said. There are many places where people's private information can be potentially obtained online, but Griswold said the killing of a state representative and her husband and the shooting of a state senator and his wife in Minnesota made the review timely. Griswold herself has been the subject of repeated threats, particularly following the 2020 elections. Four people have been convicted of charges related to making threats directed at her. "It's coming from the real facts that elected officials are under increased threats. I myself received, just in 2024, over 1,800 death threats or physical threats. It is scary, and I think we have to take that as a fact of where this country is right now," she said. "And for me, weighing the choices of the safety of elected officials, Republicans and Democrats, and a brief outage of Tracer, that the choice was very clear." Griswold said she had asked lawmakers if they wanted information like home addresses, which is not required, to be removed. The process of redacting information was taking time, and she said the site would likely remain down, but for a period of days, not weeks.
Axios
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Scoop: Colorado pauses campaign finance database after Minnesota shootings
The Colorado Secretary of State temporarily removed its public campaign finance database from the internet Saturday amid concerns it could reveal home addresses and other personal information about state lawmakers and other officials. Why it matters: The unannounced decision — first learned by Axios Denver — comes after a gunman targeted at least four Minnesota state lawmakers at their homes over the weekend, killing one Democratic representative and her husband and injuring another and his wife. Driving the news: The state's Transparency in Contribution and Expenditure Reporting database, known as TRACER, posts candidate filings that often include home addresses and personal phone numbers. Elsewhere in the system, it lists campaign contribution data that requires donors — including lawmakers — to list their names, full addresses and occupations. Secretary of State Jena Griswold ordered the removal after consultation with state and legislative leadership, a spokesperson said. The database went offline Saturday afternoon. It is expected to return after interested lawmakers file a request for the redaction of personal information, which is currently permitted in law. What they're saying: "In light of the weekend's tragic events in Minnesota and out of an abundance of caution for the safety of Colorado's elected leaders, the Department of State made a determination to take the public-facing campaign finance reporting website (TRACER) down briefly," spokesperson Jack Todd told Axios Denver in a statement. The big picture: The Minnesota shootings exposed the delicate balance between public safety and the personal privacy of state lawmakers and other top officials. Other states moved quickly to increase security by adding patrols near the homes of state lawmakers and removing online personal information, according to multiple media reports. The Minnesota state representative who was killed Saturday listed her home address on her campaign website. The other lawmaker who was injured put his home address on an official legislative web page. Flashback: In 2013, a parolee assassinated Colorado corrections chief Tom Clements at his home in Monument. Zoom in: The home addresses and contact information for Colorado lawmakers are not listed on the Legislature's website, which only discloses official phone numbers and email addresses. And many don't list home addresses on their campaign sites.
Toronto Sun
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
Man who blamed exposure to far-right content gets 3 years for threatening election officials
Published May 29, 2025 • 2 minute read FILE - Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold speaks in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, Feb. 8, 2024, in Washington. Photo by Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP DENVER (AP) — A man who blamed exposure to far-right extremist content for motivating his online threats to kill Democratic election officials Colorado and Arizona was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Teak Ty Brockbank pleaded guilty in October to making threats between September 2021 and August 2022 against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and former Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is now governor. He also threatened a Colorado judge and federal agents. Federal prosecutors sought three years in prison for Brockbank. He asked for leniency, saying he made the posts when he was drinking heavily, socially isolated and spending his evenings consuming conspiracy theories online. His attorney described Brockbank as a 'keyboard warrior' with no intent to carry out the threats. Brockbank spent time on social media sites like Gab and Rumble, the alternative video-sharing platform that has been criticized for allowing and promoting far-right extremism. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The sites delivered 'the message that the country was under attack and that patriotic Americans had a duty to rise up and act,' said Brockbank attorney Tom Ward. Ward said Brockbank was drawn to the QAnon conspiracy theory and noted in a court filing that Michael Flynn and Roger Stone were prominent on Rumble. Brockbank posted online that Colorado's top election official should 'Hang by the neck' and her former counterpart in Arizona should also be put to death. Prosecutors said in a court filing that a prison sentence was warranted in part to deter others from threatening election officials. 'Threats to elections workers across the country are an ongoing and very serious problem,' wrote Jonathan Jacobsen, a Washington-based trial attorney for the Justice Department's public integrity section. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Under the Biden administration, the department launched a task force in 2021 to combat the rise of threats targeting election officials. Brockbank's conviction in the fall was one of over a dozen convictions won by the unit. At the time, the longest sentences handed down was 3.5 years in prison in two separate cases involving election officials in Arizona. In one case, a man who advocated for 'a mass shooting of poll workers,' posted threatening statements in November 2022 about two Maricopa County officials and their children, prosecutors said. In the other, a Massachusetts man pleaded guilty to sending a bomb threat in February 2021 to an election official in the Arizona Secretary of State's office. Brockbank, who has been in custody since his arrest in August 2024, asked to be sentenced to time served plus three years supervised release and possibly six months in home detention or a halfway house. Prosecutors agreed not to pursue charges against Brockbank for having firearms he was barred from possessing because of a previous conviction or for online threats he made later. One such threat was against Griswold last year for her role in helping the prosecution of former Colorado clerk, Tina Peters. Prosecutors say he also threatened judges on the Colorado Supreme Court after they removed Donald Trump from the state's ballot. The U.S. Supreme Court later restored Trump's name to the ballot. Toronto & GTA Columnists Toronto Maple Leafs Columnists World
Toronto Star
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Man who blamed exposure to far-right content gets 3 years for threatening election officials
DENVER (AP) — A man who blamed exposure to far-right extremist content for motivating his online threats to kill Democratic election officials Colorado and Arizona was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison. Teak Ty Brockbank pleaded guilty in October to making threats between September 2021 and August 2022 against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and former Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is now governor. He also threatened a Colorado judge and federal agents.
