November 09, 2023 10:37 AM UTC

The "Boebert Brigade" Learns To Love "Ballot Harvesting"

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

Here’s an email blast we were forwarded from America’s Most Vulnerable™ Rep. Lauren Boebert’s campaign to volunteers regarding upcoming “grassroots activist boot camp” events, part of Boebert’s desperate political revamp as her rendezvous–with destiny, not the fun kind–in 2024 looms larger on the horizon:

The first thing you should notice here is the heavy emphasis on what Boebert contrarily calls “ballot harvesting,” otherwise known as following Colorado state law that allows up to ten completed mail ballots to be collected and delivered by somebody other than the voter. Although Colorado has some of the nation’s most accessible elections, Colorado is far from unique with this particular provision, with 25 states and the District of Columbia allowing for ballots to be collected and delivered subject to specific limits.

As one of ex-President Donald Trump’s loyal election deniers in 2020, Boebert raged as a “Class of January 6th” freshman against “ballot harvesting” in 2021 when Democrats introduced their HR1 For The People Act election reform legislation that would have federalized the practice:

But as readers know, something happened between 2021 and today to change Boebert’s tune on “ballot harvesting” completely–coming within 546 votes of losing her congressional seat in 2022. And by February of this year, much like her sudden conversion on “earmarks” once Republicans took control of the House, Boebert was frankly acknowledging the rules of the game, even while continuing to disparage them:

“Right. Yeah. So, you know, in Colorado, you know, we’re trying to get those ballot harvesting campaigns in place that we have to play by their game,” Boebert declared.

“It’s legal in Colorado and we’re not doing it because we’re not for it. But they’re doing that and they’re winning the elections. Colorado is turning bluer and bluer. We just lost our gubernatorial race by 20 points. I mean, this is absurd,” she declared.

What’s absurd is demonizing a common practice that has helped give Colorado one of the highest rates of voter participation in the country instead of simply embracing it. But that’s not the worst part: if their underlying view is that “ballot harvesting” is a harmful practice being “tolerated” out of expediency, there’s a greater danger that the sort of abuses Boebert warned of might actually be attempted by her supporters. In our nearly two decades covering Colorado political scandals of all sizes, Republicans aren’t just the ones who endlessly warn of election fraud–they’re also overwhelmingly the only ones committing it.

So get “harvesting,” and make sure to follow the rules. They’re not hard to follow.

For the rest of us, it’s just getting out the vote.