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by Patrick Howley15 Apr 20160
15 Apr, 201615 Apr, 2016 Volunteers at the Colorado Republican Assembly are coming forward with evidence to indicate that their state’s delegate selection process was riddled with errors that disadvantaged some Donald Trump supporters who were running to become national delegates.
The errors could have violated state bylaws significantly enough that some of the results could be contested, according to the volunteers.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took all 34 of Colorado’s delegates last week in a process that closed down traditional caucus voting to the public.
A handful of volunteers spoke to Breitbart News about the process.
“I’m the former Chairman of the Pueblo County Republican Party and the person who developed the Slates for National Delegates for the Trump team. The Colorado GOP website was filled with errors posted about the National Delegates,” Nancy Mizel told Breitbart News.
Mizel took a photograph of a ballot in Congressional District 7 that included ONLY the ballot numbers of delegate candidates, NOT the names of the candidates as required by state bylaws.
(Photo: Becky Mizel)
But Article Xiii of the Colorado Republican Convention bylaws (Assemblies and Conventions Section A) show that a delegate candidate must be identified alongside the name of the presidential candidate that he or she is pledged to support, so long as the delegate candidate discloses that information:
Candidates for national convention delegate need not identify the presidential candidate they are pledged to support, but may do so at their option. The ballot shall include the presidential candidate each candidate for national delegate is pledged to support, or shall indicate that the candidate for national delegate is unpledged. CRC Bylaws, Art. XIII, § A(5)(c).
Here are stories of three of the volunteers in their own words:
Kimberly JaJack:
JaJack, a Trump supporter, tells Breitbart News that she was not allowed to vote at the State Assembly:
I was a delegate. I pledged support for Donald Trump. In the Arapahoe County section they had designated seating areas for your last name. When it came time to pass the ballots out, someone from the Colorado GOP came around and started calling out names. When you received your ballot you received a mark on your name.
She went directly from K to I and skipped the Js. She said she didn’t have the Js….
…I asked a few people, no one seemed to have the ballots for my last name. At that particular time, I had to do my ten-second speech because I was running for national delegate. I came back and said I don’t have a ballot and I went to Andie, the president of the Cherry Creek Republican Women in Colorado, and she looked at her board. She had my name on this page and it had a check mark next to it. She looked at it and said “this is a check mark.” I said “This is my badge, you do NOT see a mark on it, do you?”
I approached a representative of Donald Trump’s campaign and I went to Steve House, chairman of the Colorado GOP. He took my name and telephone number.
JaJack said that she found out that another woman in Arapahoe County later told her that she had her ballot, but by then it was too late to vote. JaJack said that she has not heard back from the Colorado GOP. She says her case represents a “serious injustice.”
JaJack told her story at the time in a video obtained by Breitbart News:
Becky Mizel:
Mizel told Breitbart News about the extent of the errors she observed:
While I was putting together the National Delegate Slates for Mr. Trump on April 5th or 6th, copied and pasted from the Colorado GOP website – I noticed my name was missing from the website as being a national delegate candidate. Even though I had submitted timely paperwork. I called the GOP HQ. They said it was an error and they would correct it. Gave me ballot number 602 over the phone. I assumed my delegate name was corrected and added although even as ofThursday my name was still not on the website as a delegate.
I don’t know if it was ever added to the website. If I had not checked the website, which probably few do, I would never have even known the mistake and would have been completely missed as a delegate candidate. This may have happened to others who thought they were delegate candidates and were not. Only a guess. I have never implied my number was deliberately changed nor claimed I was deliberately left off the lists. If names were left off possibly numbers were also confused. I have no idea regarding their process, A series of errors that appeared to happen to myself and others and were not unique to only Trump candidates.
Folks with ballots numbered higher than 588 – those people I assume we’re errors in entry – were not published as national delegate candidates in the GOP program- nor listed in the voting booklet. Disappointing, since candidates were only allowed 10 second speeches. Being left off both informational programs was disheartening.
Nancy McKiernan:
Trump volunteer Nancy McKiernan described the chaos to Breitbart News:
Jan Herron and I and another friend were volunteers at the Trump table at the Colorado Republican State Assembly on Saturday, 4/9/2016 and witnessed a lot of confusion regarding these numbers.
When I arrived at the table at around noon, I was told by other volunteers that some of the numbers that were printed on the official Trump slates (Exhibit A) were wrong and needed to be changed. My understanding from speaking with Becky is the numbers on the slate were taken directly off of the Colorado GOP website. In trying to ascertain what the correct numbers should be, I looked in the Assembly & Convention program (Exhibit B, Paid for by the Colorado Republican Committee, www.cologop.org) and noticed that the numbers only went up to 588, yet for 4 of the delegates on the slate, their numbers were higher than 588, and therefore not listed in the program:
#589 Kimberly Jajack
#598 Rheba Massay
#602 Becky Mizel
#610 Gabriel Schwartz
I started asking around to try to figure out what the delegates were using as a reference to vote with; what was the “official” guide to match names to numbers? I was given a “Delegates to the Republican National Convention Ballot Supplement” (Exhibit C) and cross referenced numbers and names on the slate with this. Inserted into it was a blue sheet of paper containing names of delegates with numbers from 596 – 619 (Exhibit D). This sheet of paper included names for Unpledged, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and John Kasich delegates. When cross checking the slate with this “supplement”, I found these discrepancies between the Official Trump slate and the Ballot Supplement:
Name Number on Slate Number on Ballot Supplement
Robert Jenkins #257 #259
William Lambert #289 #298
Jerome Parks #379 #401
Becky Mizel #602 #606 (from blue sheet insert)
I witnessed several Trump delegates coming to the volunteer table, confused and frustrated, asking what numbers they should be using to vote for people on the Trump slate. While I was helping one gentleman fill out his ballot, I noticed errors/misprints on the ballots themselves (Exhibit E-1, E-2), e.g. two number 523’s but no 513, two 378’s, but no 379. I also noticed there were 948 numbers on the ballot, but as far as I could tell delegate numbers only went up to 619.
One woman reported that she was very angry that numbers corresponding to Trump delegates were left off the ballot. I do not have specifics on this, other than #379, Nicolas Robert Neitzel…
…Another woman/Trump supporter, reported that she was an alternate delegate and was elevated to delegate, and then was told they made a mistake and the delegate credential she had been given was ripped up. She said she was elevated again and then dropped back down to alternate a 2nd time. She was visibly upset, said I feel like I’m in a third world country and left without filling out her ballot…
When I left at approximately 5:00 pm, delegates were still walking up to the Trump volunteer table, confused, upset and asking questions. Shortly before I left, a gentleman, who was very upset, asked if he should go talk to Colorado GOP State Chairman Steve House to report the issues he encountered and set off to do just that.
Overall, what I witnessed appeared to be very chaotic, confusing and lacking in integrity. I saw delegates walking around with ballots and wondered if anyone was keeping track of them. Was there anything to stop someone from getting some extra ballots as they were roaming about and putting them in the ballot boxes? I don’t know, as I didn’t go into the arena itself, where ballots were being turned in. However, I got a general feeling of uneasiness in how things were being run.
From what I understand, mistakes were also made for Cruz delegates. However I did not track those.
The Colorado Republican Party did not immediately return a request for comment for this report.
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