I’m a fan of superhero movies. I personally liked Ironman the best, perhaps because I could see myself one day flying in that amazing suit of armor, assuming I became a billionaire and certain laws of physics could be overcome. But as a little kid, I remember watching the Superman show on tv, an old black-and-white program called “The Adventures of Superman” staring a guy who looked rather like the rest of us, without the bulging muscles of today’s heroes and villains. One thing I never could figure out, though, was how no one ever figured out that Superman was Clark Kent, given that his only disguise was a pair of glasses. I thought that such camouflage wouldn’t really work. I mean, when my dad took of his glasses, I still recognized him as my dad. But the flying stuff and the leaping tall buildings, I was OK with all of that.

Which, of course, brings me to your local county clerk…

You likely have heard and read about President Trump’s assertion that the only way he loses the election is if there is massive fraud and he is cheated out of a victory. Sadly, a number of his most ardent supporters seem to believe that false claim, and there is talk about armed right-wing folks showing up at polling places to “keep an eye on things,” or in simpler terms, to intimidate voters and scare off the non-Trumpers. The president has also falsely claimed that mail-in ballots are inevitably corrupt and that sacks of ballots have been found in a river, though the White House was never able to name that riparian ballot repository. Thinking people, who like to use actual facts, know that mail-in ballots are safe and effective ways to vote, as we in Colorado have known for many years.

And do you know who is on the front lines of protecting the vote here in the Centennial State? It is your local county clerk and the elections divisions of his or her office. A recent Colorado Politics story highlighted the hard and vital work being done by those clerks, and how they are the superheroes of this election, much to Donald Trump’s likely annoyance. The 64 county clerks in Colorado recently put out a very informative flyer on how they are protecting the right to vote at the same time as providing a safe and accurate counting of said ballots. And they have had plenty of practice with statewide voting already this year, with a presidential primary way back in March and the other primary election in June, all through facemasks and hand sanitizer.

Colorado can be rightly proud that fully 96% of our state’s voting-eligible population is actually registered to vote, and turnout is very high at 63%, ranking us third in the U.S. The clerks and their staffs are hard-working and dedicated, yet again giving lie to the president’s ongoing rage against a free and fair election. Voter suppression is the Trumpian GOP’s ace in the hole for 2020, and the clerks are the most important line of defense against such outrageous and undemocratic efforts.

So, one can’t help but wonder, given how many clerks wear glasses, if they are hiding their superpowers? I think I’ll call them “Clark Clerk.” But I digress…

I do not, therefore, worry about our voting in Colorado. I am quite confident that, despite likely shouts to the contrary by Trump and his enablers, we will see quality results, albeit not instantly given the very odd pandemic and other factors impacting the vote counting. But once it is done, I am sure it will have been done right.

I am not so sanguine about other states. We have already seen the California GOP put out fake “Official ballot drop boxes” out in some areas. That state GOP has also stated they will defy a “cease and desist” order from the State of California and will continue to collect ballots that they presumably sort through and submit. Right…  Oh, and they say it was an accident to put the word “official” on the box, oops. But I don’t worry too much about California, as even such obvious attempts to suppress voting are unlikely to swing that state red.

I am sincerely worried about Texas, where the governor recently claimed that, to fight voter fraud (which most certainly does not exist in the U.S. in any significant way), he would cut the number of ballot drop off boxes to one per county. That means that counties with 200 people get one box, and Harris county — with 4.7 million people (who are disproportionately Democrats) — also gets only a single box. Gov. Abbot said, with a straight face, that this was not an effort to make it harder for Democrats to vote, it was all about fraud, which, again, doesn’t really exist.

Here in Colorado Springs, my wife works near one of 35 ballot drop off boxes in El Paso county, and reports a steady stream of cars all day dropping off ballots. We have about 720,000 people in this county, and we have 35 ballot boxes. Why the disparity? Because here in Colorado, we have Clark Clerks, who do their job and protect our right to vote. 

So be glad your vote is safe here, whether you vote by mail or by dropping your ballot off at a box. Once again Colorado is a model of how things can and should be done. Texas? Not so much.