By Matt Crane

For more than two decades, I have worked to make Colorado’s elections accurate, secure and transparent. As Arapahoe County Clerk, I strengthened audits, pushed for transparency, and advocated common-sense safeguards like photo identification. Later, as an election security consultant to the federal government hired during the first Trump administration, I helped states and local jurisdictions nationwide improve their cyber, physical, and operational security. My focus has always been fact-based election administration.

Despite decades of work strengthening election security, my county Republican Party recently asked me to resign as a precinct leader because I do not align with the party’s current approach to election integrity.

I refused to step down. My loyalty is to voters and facts, not to narratives demanding blind conformity. This isn’t debate; it’s the rejection of expertise in service of a lie.

Any Republican who values the rule of law should be alarmed. A party fueled solely by lies, anger and grievance can’t govern effectively and doesn’t deserve trust.

I’m a lifelong Republican. I stand for limited government, fiscal responsibility, TABOR, the Second Amendment and elections that are secure and trusted. That is why I am increasingly alarmed by the direction some leaders are taking under the banner of “election integrity.” 

The most dangerous proposal now being peddled is widespread hand counting of ballots. Colorado ballots often feature 30 to 50 contests. In a precinct with 2,000 voters and 80% turnout, judges, exhausted after a 13-to-15-hour day, would then manually tally up to 64,000 vote positions. This isn’t professionalism; it’s election malpractice — guaranteeing error and inviting fraud. 

Some leaders shouting the loudest about “election integrity” have never administered a single election, never secured a single ballot, and never borne responsibility for a single chain‑of‑custody log. Yet they demand those of us who have done the work bow to their fantasies.

The record proves it. Nye County, Nevada’s 2022 hand-count pilot saw error rates near 25%. Mohave County, Arizona’s pilot in 2023 recorded a 5.41% error rate. By contrast, federally certified voting systems are tested under federal standards to achieve accuracy on the order of one error per 10 million ballot positions in laboratory testing. Applying Mohave’s error rate to El Paso County’s 2020 turnout would mean more than 20,000 ballots miscounted.

Hand counting also shreds security, multiplying handling risks and chain-of-custody breaks. Large jurisdictions abandoned it more than a century ago because experience — not politics — proved it breeds error, invites fraud and delays results. Every serious election professional knows this. Reviving it is reckless.

True election integrity also demands respecting the rule of law and honesty with voters. Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was convicted by a jury for leading a breach of her election facility. This wasn’t partisan persecution. It happened in conservative Mesa County (where Trump won 60-percent-plus), prosecuted by a Republican district attorney. 

She disabled cameras, granted unauthorized access, conspired in identity theft and leaked sensitive data — all unnecessary, as her staff already legally backed up required records.

Peters broke the law, eroded election security, and betrayed the public trust. Portraying her as a “political prisoner” is not a mistake — it is a deliberate lie told to keep voters angry and misinformed, while undermining faith in our institutions.

What makes this moment especially damaging is these false narratives are amplified not by fringe activists, but by President Donald Trump, elected officials and influential conservative thought leaders. They know better — or should. Scaring voters with lies to harvest outrage, votes and donations isn’t leadership — it’s exploitation. The rule of law is not selective, and elevating criminality as martyrdom is not conservative; it weakens election integrity.

This strategy is also electorally suicidal. In Georgia’s 2021 U.S. Senate runoffs, persistent, baseless fraud claims undermined confidence in voting among Republican voters and contributed to depressed GOP turnout, helping Democrats win both seats and flip control of the U.S. Senate — not through fraud, but through distrust fueled by lies.

Ronald Reagan envisioned America as a shining city on a hill — built on optimism, moral clarity, freedom and the rule of law. Not fear, anger, lies, or cruelty.

Colorado Republicans have won big with positivity before. Gov. Bill Owens in 1998 and 2002 triumphed on lower taxes, better schools and smart infrastructure, delivering the largest GOP margin in state history. Voters reward practical solutions, not lies and outrage.

Conservatism should be confident, forward-looking and gracious. We must reject falsehoods, vindictiveness and enemy-making, and remember people who disagree with us are not our enemies. Republicans must return to Reagan’s optimism and Bill Owens’ pragmatism: protect TABOR, tackle affordability, strengthen public safety and education, defend freedom, and tell the truth.

Election integrity is not a weapon — it is a responsibility. Colorado Republicans face a choice: we can be the party of facts, law and optimism, or the party of lies, rage and permanent defeat. We cannot be both.

Matt Crane is a former Arapahoe County clerk and recorder and executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association.