November 03, 2020 12:54 PM UTC

How Bad Do You Think It'll Get?

• 3 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

FOX 31’s Aimee Lewis reports on one of the bigger questions on everybody’s mind today:

Hoping for the best and preparing for the best, is how Executive Director of the Department of Public Safety for the County and City of Denver, describes the response plan headed into election week.

“I believe the people of Colorado and Denver will respect the results of the election,” said Murphy Robinson on Monday…

“If you cause destruction or damage, we will handle you appropriately,” said Robinson. “We will arrest you and you will be taken into custody. We have no tolerance for that in Denver.”

Colorado State Patrol will also be out in full force this week in and around the Capitol.

After a spate of unconfirmed rumors in recent days, we appear to have the first report of something like voter intimidation at an Arapahoe County drop box–Colorado Public Radio:

Arapahoe County officials on Monday called police on two men, one of them carrying a gun on his hip, who were standing outside of a Littleton drop box location filming voters as they returned ballots.

The incident occurred at the drop box outside the main Arapahoe County building on Prince Street in Littleton, which includes a Department of Motor Vehicles office. Several county employees saw the men, said Peg Perl, Arapahoe County Elections Director.

“We had some concerns from voters who felt unsafe and we had to involve law enforcement,” Perl said. “They are now gone.”

Although it’s legal to openly carry guns in most parts of Colorado outside the City and County of Denver, offenders can still be charged with enhanced crimes like felony menacing if they openly carry a weapon while engaging in other activity that constitutes intimidation–that in addition to the misdemeanor offense of voter intimidation that can be earned by any action “to impede, prevent, or otherwise interfere with the free exercise of the elective franchise of any elector.” It’s our expectation that here in Colorado, any documented case of this kind of thing will be swiftly dealt with.

As for civil disturbance tonight and in the coming days? It’s necessary to be honest here, and admit that the potential exists for violence from either left- or right-wing extremists depending on the results–and how the results are accepted by President Donald Trump and his supporters. Joe Biden is overwhelmingly expected to carry Colorado by a wide margin, so the motivation for unrest in either direction is likely to be external in nature to events here. We’ll add that it’s on balance less likely for the Antifa left to take to the barricades for Joe Biden than the MAGA right to do so for Donald Trump, strictly based on the relative enthusiasm for the two candidates with the extreme wings of their parties. And of course, if Trump refuses to accept the results of an election he has clearly lost, a massive and entirely legitimate peaceful protest mobilization could ensue.

The one thing everybody agrees on? The wider the margin, the better for the country. We will be watching anxiously like most Americans. Let democracy and cool heads prevail.