Week of May 5, 2022
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
ParkerChronicle.net
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE XX | SPORTS: PAGE 24
VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 23
County clerks reassure voters while watching for cyberattacks Officials push back against fraud claims, stay alert BY JESSICA GIBBS JGIBBS@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
While local counties’ clerks and recorders say they are still taking steps to unravel false claims of widespread election fraud two years after the 2020 presidential election
and ahead of the June primaries, they are also on the lookout for potential cyberattacks after warnings from President Joe Biden that such attacks are increasingly likely. “It’s definitely nerve-wracking, but something that we are starting to get used to,” Adams County Clerk and Recorder Josh Zygielbaum said. “It’s the world we live in now, and we do everything we can to protect the system and to protect ourselves and our workers and our voters.”
The cybersecurity threat level is similar to past elections, or the worst-case scenarios election offices have prepared for, metro area clerks said. “There is no question right now, every agency is indicating that the risk of Russian initiated cyber security threats has increased,” Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder George Stern said. But Stern said “long before we had internal threats to our elections,”
Douglas County commissioners again remove Lora Thomas as chair Teal, Laydon ask for investigation into allegations
SEE REMOVING, P11
SEE WATCHING, P10
Miss Colorado competition to stay in Parker The event is a feeder for Miss America
BY ELLIOTT WENZLER EWENZLER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Douglas County Commissioner Lora Thomas has been removed from her position as leader of the board for the second time almost exactly one year after it happened initially. In an April 26 work session, Commissioner Abe Laydon introduced the subject during general updates, saying Thomas had written a letter requesting private information about supporters of a water project being considered by the county. “We were very clear as a board that we did not want to put people’s lives or livelihoods at risk, yet you chose to issue this letter,” Laydon said.
cybersecurity and the security of election from foreign interference “has been top of mind,” Stern said. Regular probes from countries including Russia, Iran, North Korea and others are directed toward state and local election offices, looking for vulnerability in the system. Clerks said their offices partner with homeland security, the FBI, and state and local departments to
BY ELLLIOTT WENZLER EWENZLER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Meetings held by Douglas County commissioners will not only continue to be held in ILE PHOTO BY JESSICA GIBBS person but also virtually. F
STAYING WILD
Colorado strives to protect wildlife and land
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After three years of holding its event in Parker, the Miss Colorado competition plans to make the town a permanent home for Memorial Day weekends. The organization, which is a feeder for the Miss America competition, held their event at Parker’s PACE Center in 2019 and 2021 and is set to do so again this year. The Parker Chamber of Commerce initiated the agreement after hearing interest in the idea from the organization. “It’s just an easy economic SEE COLORADO, P4
PLANS TO STOCK NARCAN
Preventing fentanyl overdoses
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