From: Kathryn Porter

Date: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 at 1:27 PM

Subject: URGENT: The Real Facts on the Colorado
Contest
RNC members:
The question of seating Colorados at-large delegation confronts you
today in your vote on the Contest Committees Report. The contest
(Porter et al. v Buck et al.) is a grassroots challenge of Colorados
flawed delegate election that made a mockery of the National
Convention delegate election process. You likely saw it referenced in
the national news as chaotic.
The errors in conducting the election unfairly impacted over 11% of
the candidates. The pervasive flaws in the chaotic balloting makes the
true will of the 3,900 voting delegates indeterminable.
1.

Convention was conducted in violation of party bylaws.

An error-filled booked linked candidates names to assigned ballot

numbers. Without names on ballots, as required by bylaws,
campaigning by ballot number became necessary. (See the 22 long
number-bubble ballot. )
--Bylaws requiring names on the ballot face were willfully
ignored with no warning to most candidates.
--The official program excluded candidates 596-636, leaving
those candidates to attempt to immediately inform 3,900 voting
delegates of their ballot number.
--Other candidates were given incorrect numbers and unwittingly
campaigned under a competing candidates number.
--Respondents had advance notice of the non-compliant
number-only ballots, and created campaign ads accordingly,
such as the tee shirts with ballot numbers.
--Some voters cast ballots before they were informed of

additional candidates who were excluded from the ballot lists.

2. 2,132 votes were invalidated by the computerized voting
system without proper manual review. CRC will not permit a
review of the ballots and has destroyed the electronic copies, after
committing to preserve them. A review of the available paper ballots
would likely find that many of the rejected ballots should have been
counted. Additionally, 136 votes were counted for unassigned
numbers, but not reviewed by Teller Committee. Patterns of
anomalies suggest a ballot scanner problem.
3. Convention Rules unavailable. CRC did not distribute
convention rules to delegates, including the rule requiring names on
ballots.
Even the Convention Rules required names on the face of the
ballot, but hours after Rules approval, the non-compliant numberbubble ballots were distributed.
4. Teller Report was not given. After ballot tabulation, the
Chairman merely announced the Respondents names as winners,
without disclosing required vote counts and other statistics. There
were no provisions for election observers. Candidates had no access
to specific information needed for objections.
5. Objections could not be made. No floor microphones were
available for delegate participation, nor were the rules. The large
arena with over 6,000 attendees was chaotic and disorderly.
6. CRC records indicate that 3 Respondents failed to qualify as
candidates.
Respondents Kristi Brown, Jon Hotaling and Steve Humphrey were
not listed on the CRC records as eligible candidates. Respondents
have refused to produce records to prove eligibility.
7. Every error is material, because of the thin margins of
victory. Small margins (2 votes, 8 votes, etc.) separated winners from

losers. If errors were corrected and unfair practices quantified, it is

likely that not all Respondents would have been elected.
The quantitative impact of the bylaw violations and widespread
errors cannot be determined, but harm to most candidates was
substantial. The tabulation errors that can be quantified are dependent
on a review of the ballots, which the Respondents and CRC refuse to
release. The election must not be permitted to stand without
consequences and accountability.
The July 11, 2016 Contest Committee report referenced the
balloting process as embarrassing incompetence but
recommended no change to the delegation. They concluded that the
Colorado at-large delegation, elected by these incompetent actions,
should pay no price for benefitting from the unfair, flawed election.
As representatives of scores of disenfranchised and unfairly treated
candidates, Contestants seek to have the 9th through 13th ranked
delegates decertified and assume four of those seats and appoint the
fifth. The RNC should send a message to all Republicans that fair
elections are fundamental to our partys principles, and that material
violations of rules in the 16(f) process must not be permitted.
As the Committee stated, [T]he CRC must avoid this type of
embarrassing incompetence, and it should promptly make any
necessary adjustments to avoid such shortcomings in the future.
Please ensure that this admonition is taken seriously by voting to
reject the Committees recommendation of no consequences for an
election conducted with such "embarrassing incompetence."
Please feel free to contact our representative Marilyn Marks for more
information.
Links to our filings with the Committee on Contests are linked below.
Kathryn Porter
Lead Contestant, Porter v. Buck

kat@spectrumparenting.com
719-354-3792
Contestants representative
Marilyn Marks
Marilyn@AspenOffice.com
970 404 2225
Documents filed with Committee on Contest:
Notice of Contest
Contestants Statement of Position
Objection Brief and Hearing Brief