DENVER (AP) — A judge on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit challenging a primary election recount lost by an indicted Colorado county clerk who alleged voting fraud in her failed bid to become the state’s top election official.
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters filed a lawsuit objecting to the methods used to recount ballots on Aug. 3 but did not ask for the recount to be stopped until the following day, after the recount was completed and several hours after the recount results had been certified by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. Judge Andrew P. McCallin ruled that election law only gives him the authority to consider recount challenges while a recount is underway and his jurisdiction stops once it is over and is certified.
The recount barely changed the results of the primary election to choose a Republican candidate to challenge Griswold in November’s election with Peters picking up 13 more votes, ending up with about 29% of the vote, according to the secretary of state. Pam Anderson finished in first place with 43% of the vote.
According to McCallin’s ruling, Peters said that the recount could still be challenged because she claimed it was not conducted under the methods outlined in the law. However, McCallin said that argument would allow a recount to be subject to challenge long after it was completed, pointing out that the law lays out ways for challenges to be quickly resolved so election deadlines can be met.
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