July 14, 2022 01:28 PM UTC

Never Over: Ron Hanks, Tina Peters Request Recounts

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• by: Colorado Pols

A report from Steamboat Radio has the latest in what could be a never-ending saga of denial and bad faith, as the two Colorado Republican candidates most closely identified with the conspiracy theory positing that Donald Trump should still be President of the United States refuse as promised to accept the results of GOP primary elections they lost by decisive margins on June 28th:

A request from Tina Peters in the 2022 Republican Primary Election for Secretary of State was received this morning. Peters had 28.86% of the votes in the Republican Primary, which is 180,036 out of 623,786. She was just ahead of Mike O’Donnell. Pam Anderson won the primary for the Republican Party.

Ron Hanks also requested a recount Wednesday in the 2022 Republican Primary Election Race for U.S. Senate. Hanks had 45.54% of the primary vote with 288,464 votes out of 633,488. Joe O’Dea won the primary for the Republican Party.

In a letter to the Secretary of State’s Office, Ron Hanks wrote, “There are significant indications malfeasance occurred in the June 28, 2022 primary, and the reported outcome of this election does not accurately reflect the will of Colorado voters in the race for US Senate or in other statewide races, as well as district and county races.”

In her letter to Secretary of State Jena Griswold requesting a recount, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters tries and fails rather hilariously to justify her suspicions of enough fraud to overcome her substantial deficit to Pam Anderson:

I have reasons to believe extensive malfeasance occurred in the June 2022 primary, and that the apparent outcome of this election does not reflect the will of Colorado voters not only for myself but also for many other America First statewide and local primary candidates. Not only did I take almost 61% of the delegate vote at the GOP state assembly, I also took the highest position in the GOP poll at 47%, and won every straw poll where I spoke by wide margins… [Pols emphasis]

First of all, we’re sorry to say that the graveyard of Colorado political history is full of candidates who won their state assembly only to get squished in the primary election. It’s a tradition as old as the dirt Greg Lopez thinks should count for people in statewide elections. We wish only Peters had cited our web polls like Hanks once did to prove how silly these unscientific “proof points” Peters cites really are.

Because neither of these races came in anywhere near close enough to oblige the state to cover the cost of a recount, the Secretary of State’s office will now deliver a cost estimate to the requesting parties. The high cost of a vanity recount would ordinarily be enough to deter crackpot requests like these, but at least in Peters’ case we’re not just dealing with any crackpot–but also the seemingly limitless deep pockets of “MyPillow Guy” Mike Lindell. Lindell has sold enough overpriced pillows to spend the rest of his days bankrolling quixotic quests to undermine confidence in our elections, with a whole generation of loser candidates ready to play the victim just like Trump.

We really hope this isn’t the future of American democracy.

Here’s to a day in the future when Republicans lose gracefully again.