Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen in this corner from the University of Colorado.
Speaker 1: Thirty years in Lorraine, fighting for truth, justice.
Speaker 2: And the American Way. Dan chap Glass Hollow.
Speaker 3: Everyone, it's Heidi Ganol filling in for Dan Kaplis today
Speaker 3: and tomorrow tomorrow. We will have Congresswoman Lauren Bobert on
Speaker 3: at the four thirty five break, So join us. We're
Speaker 3: going to talk a lot about predictions for twenty twenty
Speaker 3: five tomorrow. Just to give you a little taste, I
Speaker 3: did a little Twitter poll, an ex poll, and Mark
Speaker 3: Kaiser says his top predictions for next year. Polis and
Speaker 3: Johnston are going to do well. I won't say the
Speaker 3: word a criminal walk for not obeying federal law because
Speaker 3: they've said they would do that. I guess pr bonds eliminated,
Speaker 3: catalytic converters stolen off all legislators, vehicles Denver and Boulders
Speaker 3: secede from Colorado, and wolves are populated in Boulder, Jesse.
Speaker 3: How realistic do you think? That? Is not very That
Speaker 3: sounds good in theory, especially the wolves. I do think
Speaker 3: they're coming closer to the Never Metro area. It's kind
Speaker 3: of crazy, but I want to wrap up the conversation
Speaker 3: with Bob, we talked a little bit about how you
Speaker 3: can get involved in helping restore trust in our elections.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that I didn't understand when
Speaker 3: I first after the election of twenty two, when I
Speaker 3: first got engaged in kind of doing this review and
Speaker 3: analysis of what happened in that election, I didn't realize
Speaker 3: how much power the county commissioners have. And sixty percent
Speaker 3: or so, I'm not sure if that number's like I
Speaker 3: think it's in the ballpark, but a good majority of
Speaker 3: county commissioners in Colorado are conservative, They're Republicans, and they
Speaker 3: have a lot of power over what happens with the
Speaker 3: county clerk, with the county attorney. They hire and fire
Speaker 3: the attorney, and the attorney gives a lot of advice
Speaker 3: to the county clerk. And so I would hope that
Speaker 3: we would have some commissioners that you all you all
Speaker 3: know your commissioners, likely because this audience is pretty on
Speaker 3: the ball as far as staying in touch with their
Speaker 3: elected officials. Talk to your commissioners, ask them if they
Speaker 3: can do a couple of things. One is to make
Speaker 3: sure that their drop boxes, your drop boxes in the
Speaker 3: county are high quality, they're pointed in the right direction,
Speaker 3: and that someone's reviewing the footage even live stream them.
Speaker 3: I kudos to Douglas County after we brought this up,
Speaker 3: they decided to live stream their drop boxes and that
Speaker 3: provides confidence and trust in our systems. The other thing
Speaker 3: is ask them if there is remote Wi Fi access
Speaker 3: in their voting systems, and not just capabilities, but does
Speaker 3: it connect, Why does it connect? When does it connect?
Speaker 3: And if there are capabilities, why can't they just remove them?
Speaker 3: They can. Don't let them tell you they can't. They
Speaker 3: can remove them. They can remove the little cards, the
Speaker 3: things that make the Wi Fi go. I'm not a techie,
Speaker 3: but it's going to take some pressure from all of you,
Speaker 3: especially in those twelve counties where they've admit it that
Speaker 3: they have that. The last thing is ask the county
Speaker 3: commissioners to ask the county clerk and work with the
Speaker 3: county attorney to make sure that the local post office,
Speaker 3: the US Post Office in that county is providing very
Speaker 3: detailed invoices and tracking of the undeliverable ballots that are
Speaker 3: being returned to them, that they are returning to the
Speaker 3: clerk's office there's no reason that shouldn't be detailed out.
Speaker 3: We should know exactly how many ballots are returned undeliverable
Speaker 3: and are not lost in the Netherlands. And then finally
Speaker 3: ask them if they would be willing to bring in
Speaker 3: an outside auditorist specialist to look at the signature verification process,
Speaker 3: the voter roles in the county, make sure that there
Speaker 3: aren't illegal or non citizens on the voter rolls, or
Speaker 3: that folks that should have been taken off the voter
Speaker 3: rolls are off. That's been a problem in the past,
Speaker 3: and obviously the Secretary of State said that's not okay.
Speaker 3: You can't do that. You can't audit anything. Basically, I'm
Speaker 3: exaggerating a little bit hopeful, but I would suggest somebody
Speaker 3: needs to take her on on that front and bring
Speaker 3: in an outside auditor, try and do some looks at
Speaker 3: the process, make sure everything's okay, and then be willing
Speaker 3: to go to court with her if you need to. So,
Speaker 3: I think you've got a lot of citizens across Colorado
Speaker 3: that would back you up if you're a county clerk
Speaker 3: or a county commissioner who wants to take that on.
Speaker 3: I've tried talking to our Douglas County commissioners about these
Speaker 3: issues and the clerk and haven't been able to since
Speaker 3: we did this audit, they haven't been willing to sit
Speaker 3: down and talk about it. And that's where I live.
Speaker 3: It's really really unfortunate, especially since I was a candidate
Speaker 3: for a statewide office and that was the election I
Speaker 3: wanted to talk about. But you, as a citizen have
Speaker 3: a lot of power, and you have a lot of
Speaker 3: influence over your county commissioners, who have influence over the
Speaker 3: County attorney and the County of Clerk. They're all elected,
Speaker 3: and you've got to speak up, and you've got to
Speaker 3: ask them to hold Secretary of State accountable, Like why
Speaker 3: aren't they more upset? Why aren't a county clerks and
Speaker 3: county commissioners more upset about the bios password lak. She's
Speaker 3: basically getting off with no consequences when Tina Peters is
Speaker 3: sitting in jail for pretty much the same thing. That's
Speaker 3: not okay. But it takes all of us to speak
Speaker 3: up about it. We've got to speak up. We've got
Speaker 3: to use our bully pulpits when we have them. If
Speaker 3: you have a Twitter account, if you have a Facebook
Speaker 3: group speak up about this. We've got some time now
Speaker 3: before the next election this fall. There's some very very
Speaker 3: critical school board elections coming up, and so I want
Speaker 3: to talk a little bit about how you engage engage
Speaker 3: on that front too. But to wrap this part up,
Speaker 3: it's going to take all of you. You can't sit
Speaker 3: around and wait for someone to come in and fix
Speaker 3: everything on the election front. It's going to take for
Speaker 3: each of you to get involved. And Colorado Elections at
Speaker 3: Colorado Institute for Fair Elections is doing a really good
Speaker 3: job and they're activating volunteers if you want to get involved.
Speaker 3: They actually helped put up a dropbox citizen observer program
Speaker 3: in this last election. I helped with it too, and
Speaker 3: we got volunteers all across Colorado to actually observe dropboxes
Speaker 3: because the government wasn't doing its job and making sure
Speaker 3: that they were secure. So we did it for them.
Speaker 3: And it was quite a battle to get that through
Speaker 3: and kind of okayed by the Secretary of State's office.
Speaker 3: They weren't happy about it, but that's our First Amendment
Speaker 3: right as citizens. And so there's lots of things you
Speaker 3: can do to get engaged. You can also be an
Speaker 3: election judge a pole watcher. You've got time to train
Speaker 3: and to learn and to get involved on that front.
Speaker 3: And this election coming up on the school boards and
Speaker 3: city council races is going to be really important in Colorado.
Speaker 3: But it'll tee you up. Hopefully, we have a big
Speaker 3: army of educated volunteers who are going to be activated
Speaker 3: in the midterms in twenty six because that's going to
Speaker 3: be all at war. The Democrats are not going to
Speaker 3: take this last, you know, without fighting back. So that's
Speaker 3: going to happen in twenty six. So what can you do.
Speaker 3: You can get involved with Colorado Institute for Fair Elections
Speaker 3: CEO fair Elections dot org. You can also become a
Speaker 3: leader in your own neighborhood. You know a lot of
Speaker 3: people on x are saying to me, like, who's going
Speaker 3: to take the lead of the GOP in Colorado. Who's gonna,
Speaker 3: you know, basically manage the comeback? And it's actually you.
Speaker 3: You've got to do that in your own neighborhood. All
Speaker 3: politics are local and there's nothing stopping you from creating
Speaker 3: a list of your like minded neighbors, hosting an event,
Speaker 3: getting things started. You can work with your precinct chair
Speaker 3: even if you're not a Republican, a registered Republican, reach
Speaker 3: out to your county GOP, tell them you want to
Speaker 3: help out, you want to get involved, and there's lists
Speaker 3: that you can get of people and how they vote
Speaker 3: in your Neighborhood's kind of creepy, but they're available, and
Speaker 3: you can invite people to a barbecue, invite people to
Speaker 3: the local classroom, invite people to the library to meet up.
Speaker 3: And then also you need to attend all your local meetings.
Speaker 3: You need to go to your school board meetings, your
Speaker 3: city council meetings, your county commissioner meetings. They're put online.
Speaker 3: Also you can watch online, but I really want you
Speaker 3: to go live so you can experience it. You can testify.
Speaker 3: My older daughter actually testified for the first time at
Speaker 3: a Douglas County school board meeting a few weeks ago,
Speaker 3: and it was very empowering. And she's heard a lot
Speaker 3: of things on the campaign and helping me in politics,
Speaker 3: but actually doing it and engaging and being a voice
Speaker 3: for what you believe in makes a difference. It makes
Speaker 3: a difference in how you pay attention to things. And
Speaker 3: then finally, we've got a great community on X. If
Speaker 3: you go to my profile. Right below it, it says
Speaker 3: Colorado's Road Back to Red. We've got about sixteen hundred
Speaker 3: people in that ex community and every day we're talking
Speaker 3: about what you can do to turn Colorado around. We
Speaker 3: call it our fight Back in five fight back in
Speaker 3: five minutes, something that takes five minutes every day that
Speaker 3: you can do to turn Colorado around as a citizen.
Speaker 3: And you don't have to be a Republican, you don't
Speaker 3: have to be even conservative. You can just be a
Speaker 3: citizen who cares about Colorado and wants to make a
Speaker 3: difference and have a voice. You have to join the group,
Speaker 3: so you have to request and then we'll add you
Speaker 3: in and we'll get you off on your way and
Speaker 3: doing your fight backs in five every day. So in
Speaker 3: a little bit we're going to have Heather booth On,
Speaker 3: who's a school board member in Albert County. There's some
Speaker 3: really interesting developments going on there with some books in
Speaker 3: the district and a lawsuit that's been filed by the ACLU.
Speaker 3: We'll talk more about that, but I'm calling twenty twenty
Speaker 3: five the year of the school Board for Colorado. There
Speaker 3: are some critical races around the state. We're going to
Speaker 3: teach you how to get engaged, how to make a difference.
Speaker 3: We're going to practice for the midterms, and we're going
Speaker 3: to take back our state, one neighborhood at a time,
Speaker 3: and you are the leader of your neighborhood. You're going
Speaker 3: to make a list of all your like minded friends.
Speaker 3: You're going to host events. You're going to do this
Speaker 3: with some friends so you're not alone. You're going to
Speaker 3: attend city council meetings, county commissioner meetings, school board meetings.
Speaker 3: Get to know who your elected officials are, your state representatives,
Speaker 3: your state senators, and you're going to get in touch
Speaker 3: with the precinct chair, which is the neighborhood kind of
Speaker 3: captain for the Republican Party. If you're a registered Republican,
Speaker 3: if you're unaffiliated, you should still do that. And also
Speaker 3: if you're a libertarian. The Libertarians and the conservative movement
Speaker 3: and the Republicans are working very well together right now,
Speaker 3: and we'd love to have more opportunities to join forces
Speaker 3: and defeat the progressive agenda of Colorado that's destroying our state.
Speaker 3: So if you're not already on X, take the leap.
Speaker 3: It's the new way to get news it's the only
Speaker 3: way to get news now. The legacy media is dying.
Speaker 3: And join our community Colorado's road back to Red. You
Speaker 3: just go to my my profile and you sign up
Speaker 3: and we'll let you in and then we'll be on
Speaker 3: our way and we're going to build our army of
Speaker 3: freedom loving Colorado's to take back our state. I think
Speaker 3: it's about time to take a break. Jesse. This is
Speaker 3: Heidi Ganal filling in for Dan Caples. We'll be right back. Hello,
Speaker 3: this is Heidi Ganal filling in for Dan Caplis on
Speaker 3: this New Year's Eve.
Speaker 4: Eve.
Speaker 3: I'll be in tomorrow as well with my special guess,
Speaker 3: Congresswoman Lauren Bobert at four thirty five, but join us
Speaker 3: for the whole time four to six tomorrow. We've got
Speaker 3: a special guest coming up in just a few minutes,
Speaker 3: Heather Booth, who's on the Elbert County School Board. But
Speaker 3: before that, I wanted to kind of wrap up the
Speaker 3: conversation about how you can get engaged and involved in
Speaker 3: what you can do as a citizen. And in Colorado,
Speaker 3: we have a process that allows citizens to put forward
Speaker 3: ballot initiatives and you need a certain percentage of the
Speaker 3: vote depending on if it's a change to the Constitution
Speaker 3: or not. But there's been a lot of talk about
Speaker 3: ballot initiatives for twenty twenty five, twenty six and beyond
Speaker 3: about election integrity, and earlier we talked to Bob Cooper
Speaker 3: about some of the problems we're facing. And obviously Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: President Trump is looking to do some things on a
Speaker 3: federal level. I believe he's talked about making election Day
Speaker 3: a holiday and requiring photo ID and paper ballots. But
Speaker 3: what does that mean for Colorado? What else do we
Speaker 3: need to have happened in Colorado for voters to trust
Speaker 3: our process and trust that their vote matters. Well, We've
Speaker 3: been collecting some information Colorado Institute for Election Integrity and
Speaker 3: I've been working together to kind of put together a
Speaker 3: list of potential things we could run a ballot initiative on.
Speaker 3: And here's some of the things that people think are
Speaker 3: really important. Number one is require a photo ID to
Speaker 3: register to vote and with the mail in ballots. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure what that would look like if you
Speaker 3: need to send in a copy of your picture, or
Speaker 3: if when you go into register you've got to you've
Speaker 3: got to bring your ID and making sure, it's a
Speaker 3: government issued ID, not like a student ID or a
Speaker 3: workout club ID whatever, But that's really important to voters.
Speaker 3: Another one is requiring proof of citizenship, not a self
Speaker 3: affirmation to register to vote. So like the DMV right now,
Speaker 3: when folks who aren't citizens go in, they have to
Speaker 3: kind of say to on the form, I am not
Speaker 3: a citizen, like they have to actually claim that instead
Speaker 3: of the other way around, like are you a citizen?
Speaker 3: So we need folks to require we need our elected
Speaker 3: officials to require proof of citizenship. And that's really that
Speaker 3: goes towards the DMV. It goes to the election offices.
Speaker 3: The clerks kind of say it's the Secretary of State.
Speaker 3: The Secretary of State says it's other folks. They blame
Speaker 3: it on the FEDS. It's like this circular firing squad
Speaker 3: around that issue. So we've got to figure that out.
Speaker 3: The other thing is banning automatic voter registration at the DMV.
Speaker 3: So instead of everybody getting registered, is an unaffiliated that
Speaker 3: registered or gets a driver's license or an ID, require
Speaker 3: the voter to request a ballot for a legitimate reason.
Speaker 3: So if if you want a mail in ballot, if
Speaker 3: you want to get your ballot that way, request it
Speaker 3: like we used to with absentee ballots. A lot of
Speaker 3: folks enjoy going to vote in person, My husband does,
Speaker 3: and going on election Day, and I think that's why
Speaker 3: make election Day a holiday would actually be really popular.
Speaker 3: In fact, a twenty twenty PU Research Center survey found
Speaker 3: that seventy one percent of Americans favor making election Day
Speaker 3: a national holiday. Now, they just may want a day off,
Speaker 3: but I believe that that would actually really go far
Speaker 3: in helping people trust their vote again if they could
Speaker 3: do in person voting and you had to request a
Speaker 3: mail in ballot. If we were going to stick with those,
Speaker 3: some other things, maybe some ballot security measures, serializing ballots
Speaker 3: or using anti counterfeit tracking methods like RFID chips or
Speaker 3: embedded technology that would allow the ballot to be tracked
Speaker 3: the entire time. That would deal with the US post
Speaker 3: Office issue that Bob was talking about early, where the
Speaker 3: post Office is supposed to invoice the county clerk for
Speaker 3: all the undeliverable ballots they get back, so after the
Speaker 3: ballots are sent out, they get a bunch back that
Speaker 3: are either going to the wrong address or something was
Speaker 3: wrong and right now they're supposed to invoice the county
Speaker 3: clerks for those ballots, and it seems like a lot
Speaker 3: are getting lost in the shuffle. In fact, in Bob's
Speaker 3: analysis of nine counties, there were over thirty thousand that
Speaker 3: were just not accounted for. That's not okay. That doesn't
Speaker 3: go very far to ensuring trust in our system, in
Speaker 3: our gold standard system. Also, I think voters would look
Speaker 3: favorably and our kind of informal survey says this unlimiting
Speaker 3: dropbox ballot returns to just election locations, not everywhere known
Speaker 3: to mankind. We have our four hundred drop boxes across
Speaker 3: Colorado right now, and only during staffed hours, so not overnight,
Speaker 3: because it seems like if someone was going to try
Speaker 3: and pul shenanigans, which it is the law, you can
Speaker 3: only turn in, only only turn in ten ballots the
Speaker 3: whole election, you know, that would be a deterrent. So
Speaker 3: the drop boxes would be only at election offices and
Speaker 3: only be only open during staffed hours. That would still
Speaker 3: give people a lot of flexibility and ease and turning
Speaker 3: in their ballot. Now, I don't think this one would fly.
Speaker 3: I don't think Coloradins are going to go here, but
Speaker 3: you could ban mail in balloting and just limit it
Speaker 3: to absentee balloting with strict guidelines for getting absentee status.
Speaker 3: I don't think that one would get put through, but
Speaker 3: let me know what you think. If you want to
Speaker 3: call in or text call in is three ozho three
Speaker 3: seven one three eight two five five seven one three
Speaker 3: eight two five five, or you can text dan to
Speaker 3: five seven seven three nine. Some other ideas banning all
Speaker 3: electronic elections equipment and sophomore software and returning to in person,
Speaker 3: hand voted and hand counted paper ballots at the precinct level.
Speaker 3: A lot of folks are like, that can happen, it
Speaker 3: takes too long. Well, it can happen. It does happen
Speaker 3: in other places, it used to happen here, and I
Speaker 3: would suggest that that might go far in restoring trust,
Speaker 3: whether we like it or not, a lot of people
Speaker 3: don't trust the technology around our elections. And then finally
Speaker 3: banning ranked choice voting in any form at any level
Speaker 3: in Colorado. That is going to come back. That was
Speaker 3: just a little dip in the toe in the sand
Speaker 3: with this. Try to get ranked choice voting in Colorado.
Speaker 3: I absolutely think they're going to bring that ballot measure back,
Speaker 3: and they've got a lot of financial resources behind them.
Speaker 3: They're trying to do this across the country, and I
Speaker 3: think it's wrong for the people of Colorado. It's very confusing.
Speaker 3: We've talked a lot about that on this show and
Speaker 3: on Rocky Mountain Voice. But I truly believe we've got
Speaker 3: to do everything we can to restore trust in our
Speaker 3: election processes again, and I think President Trump's on board
Speaker 3: with that. I think we in Colorado, my goodness, we
Speaker 3: have a lot to deal with with Jenna Griswold's mishandling
Speaker 3: of the BIOS passwords and lack of kind of discipline
Speaker 3: around the signature verification process, and what happened in Mason
Speaker 3: County and the drop box issues. We've seen the US
Speaker 3: Post Office audits that Bob talked about, the voter role issues.
Speaker 3: The Public Legal Interest Foundation sued Jenni Griswold to get
Speaker 3: the list of dead voters that are on the voter rolls,
Speaker 3: and that was due on November first, right before the election.
Speaker 3: I called the Secretary of State's office right after that
Speaker 3: and said, can I get that list too? It should
Speaker 3: be public information. They said no, so I'm working with
Speaker 3: PILF Public Legal Interest Foundation. Hopefully I got that at
Speaker 3: Public Interest Legal Foundation to try and get that list,
Speaker 3: but that should be available to the public. Why is
Speaker 3: she hiding it? Typical Jennick Griswold just doesn't do anything
Speaker 3: to restore the trust of voters. And then we're also
Speaker 3: trying to work with the DMV to find out more
Speaker 3: about their process for preventing non citizens from being able
Speaker 3: to vote, and whether that's a d MV issue or
Speaker 3: a Secretary of State issue, or a county clerk issue.
Speaker 3: We're not really clear on that yet. So there's some
Speaker 3: ideas for ballot initiatives. I'm not quite sure I have
Speaker 3: the time or energy to put together something like that,
Speaker 3: but there's some great people across Colorado that can and
Speaker 3: we can do some poll testing and see what people
Speaker 3: are really interested in doing out of those choices. And
Speaker 3: we can also talk to our county commissioners and our
Speaker 3: county clerk about making sure that some of these problems
Speaker 3: don't exist, and if they do, fixing them and have
Speaker 3: their back, like if they're willing to go out on
Speaker 3: a limb and push against the Secretary of State, then
Speaker 3: have their back and speak highly of them in the
Speaker 3: public and talk about how proud you are that they're
Speaker 3: standing up against Johnny Griswold and her lack of transparency
Speaker 3: and her lack of accountability on the bios passwords, while
Speaker 3: Tina Peters, the previous Mesa County clerk, sits in prison
Speaker 3: for doing something similar for a long long time. All right,
Speaker 3: Next up, we're going to talk about predictions in the
Speaker 3: last little part of the show. But first we're going
Speaker 3: to talk to Heather Booth on the Elbert County School
Speaker 3: Board and she has some interesting things to say about
Speaker 3: a new lawsuit by the ACLU about some books that
Speaker 3: were taken out of the library there. But what are
Speaker 3: your I want you to think about it before tomorrow's
Speaker 3: show and then you can text in, you can pop
Speaker 3: me a message on Twitter, you can call in. Tomorrow
Speaker 3: we'll have Congresswoman Bobert. We're going to ask her what
Speaker 3: her twenty twenty five predictions are. You know, I think
Speaker 3: it's going to be a great year. I think a
Speaker 3: lot of good things are going to happen. Things are
Speaker 3: going to turn around. I like the idea of Doge
Speaker 3: going in and cleaning house on the bureaucracies and making
Speaker 3: sure that every penny is accounted for, our precious tax
Speaker 3: dollars are accounted for and spent well. And also that
Speaker 3: we put together a strong border and we remove violent
Speaker 3: criminals from Colorado from America and hopefully make America safe again,
Speaker 3: because that's a huge issue and one that all Americans,
Speaker 3: most Americans, majority of Americans agree on. This is Heidi
Speaker 3: Ganal filling in for Dan Caplis. We'll be right back
Speaker 3: after the break. Hello. Everyone, it's Heidi Ganal filling in
Speaker 3: for Dan Caplis. This afternoon, I'm honored to have Heather Booth,
Speaker 3: my friend who's also on the Albert County school Board,
Speaker 3: live with us to talk about an interesting issue about
Speaker 3: books and the ACLU is not happy with you guys. Heather,
Speaker 3: how you doing today?
Speaker 2: Good, Hidie, Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3: Of course, you know, I got I got several emails
Speaker 3: about this actually yesterday, and then you and I texted
Speaker 3: back and forth a little bit about it. But this
Speaker 3: is a this is a very hot topic and one
Speaker 3: that could end up in the Supreme Court. Tell us
Speaker 3: a little bit about what's going on and why the
Speaker 3: ACLU is is, you know, coming after the board.
Speaker 2: Great. Thanks. Yeah. At the ACLUS teamed up with a
Speaker 2: couple of parents and some other organizations in fighting US.
Speaker 2: And we are a very small school district outside of Denver,
Speaker 2: and we have about, I don't know, about twenty five
Speaker 2: hundred students. We have four schools, and we came across
Speaker 2: nineteen books in our school that were very age inappropriate
Speaker 2: and too. We went through a process to get input
Speaker 2: from parents, community members, and the overwhelming majority said that
Speaker 2: they did not want these books in our schools. So
Speaker 2: we decided to remove them. And that was it. I mean,
Speaker 2: they lost it. I feel you lost it and decided
Speaker 2: to sue us. And we're just shocked, we really are.
Speaker 2: We're just very shocked by this.
Speaker 3: Heather, When did this happen?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 3: When was the meeting where the decision was made to
Speaker 3: remove the books.
Speaker 2: It was a couple of months ago, but it had
Speaker 2: you know, there was a long process in this, and
Speaker 2: we we went through several weeks of it and got
Speaker 2: a lot of input, especially from parents who just didn't
Speaker 2: want these books in their school. And we're big about
Speaker 2: parental choice and parents have the right to decide these things.
Speaker 3: And you and I were talking earlier about how these
Speaker 3: books are available in the public libraries right down the street, correct.
Speaker 2: Literally right down from three of our four schools. It
Speaker 2: is right down the street. There is a public library
Speaker 2: where you can find the majority, if not all, of
Speaker 2: these books that you.
Speaker 3: Can get or obviously they can order them online if
Speaker 3: they want their kids to read them. But a lot
Speaker 3: of the parents may not even know that their kids
Speaker 3: are reading these books or checking these books out. So
Speaker 3: taking them out of the library, I mean, is I
Speaker 3: as a parent, I'd totally support that. I elect you
Speaker 3: because I trust you to make decisions like this on
Speaker 3: the school board. I find it odd whether that the
Speaker 3: federal government requires you. Guys, don't I think you have
Speaker 3: to have internet filters in place at your school to
Speaker 3: prevent them from accessing inappropriate content. But what is present
Speaker 3: in these books is okay?
Speaker 2: Right? And so exactly, And here's the thing. There are
Speaker 2: lots in places place preventing adults from giving kids sexually
Speaker 2: explicit materials. How is this any different? In fact, that
Speaker 2: is how a lot of things are set up. You
Speaker 2: can't go see an R rated movie unless you're eighteen.
Speaker 2: You can't drive a car unless you're sixteen, You can't
Speaker 2: buy alcohol, join the military, and a couple other things
Speaker 2: unless you're a certain age. So how is this any different?
Speaker 3: I don't know that it is. It doesn't feel different.
Speaker 3: But why do you think the ACLU has picked Albert
Speaker 3: County to use as a test case? And I mean,
Speaker 3: this could go far, It could end up at the
Speaker 3: Supreme Court, and they know that. I think that's why
Speaker 3: they're doing it. But tell me more about what you
Speaker 3: think their motives are, if you can speak to that
Speaker 3: or not a little bit.
Speaker 2: I honestly think they think they can bully us into
Speaker 2: putting the books back, honestly, and that is because we
Speaker 2: are one of the lowest funded school districts in the
Speaker 2: state of Colorado, and in fact, we just came out
Speaker 2: of a financial exidency. Well we had to actually let
Speaker 2: go of twelve staff members because we and have enough money.
Speaker 2: So I think they feel that if they come after
Speaker 2: us and push hard enough, that we'll just raise up
Speaker 2: our hands and say, okay, you win, let's put the
Speaker 2: garbage back in the school. And uh, you know, we've
Speaker 2: had a lot of people rally around us and say, no,
Speaker 2: we're supporting you. This is not okay. We're just not
Speaker 2: going to put these books back in and we're going
Speaker 2: to fight. Like hell.
Speaker 3: I want to talk. I want to talk about some
Speaker 3: other things on the board. But first tell folks that
Speaker 3: are listening how they can help and support you.
Speaker 5: We have a funding page set up and actually it's
Speaker 5: through A five on and C three, So anything that
Speaker 5: you support us with is UH tax deductible, which is awesome.
Speaker 2: And it's be it t that's some boy. It dot
Speaker 2: l y forward slash support dash Elizabeth and again that's
Speaker 2: me I dot l y forward slash support dash Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: And all the money will go directly to helping us
Speaker 2: fite the ACLU and other outside entities that are suing
Speaker 2: our districts for really frivolous reasons. This is ridiculous. I mean,
Speaker 2: we ran on keeping schools safe not only from external
Speaker 2: threats but also some inappropriate materials or influences within the school.
Speaker 3: Heather, what kind of other things have you done? How
Speaker 3: long have you been on the school board?
Speaker 2: Now three years? I have been on OKA.
Speaker 3: And do you guys have a conservative majority on the board.
Speaker 5: We do?
Speaker 2: We do, Yes, we do.
Speaker 3: And what have you been able to get done or
Speaker 3: not being able to get done? I know it's very difficult,
Speaker 3: even if you do have a majority to get things done.
Speaker 3: With my experience on the regent board, but tell me
Speaker 3: a little bit more.
Speaker 2: Well, we've been able to get done quite a few things.
Speaker 5: Top my head.
Speaker 2: We put in a quo COVID resolution actually is in
Speaker 2: the middle of another lawsuit because and it was just
Speaker 2: a resolution. It wasn't even a policy. It was a
Speaker 2: resolution stating that we wouldn't mandate vaccines or masks for
Speaker 2: our kids who are teachers, that they could disciple themselves.
Speaker 2: What a concept.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, and you got sued for that.
Speaker 2: Oh, we're currently being sued. Yes, you know, we have
Speaker 2: a parental choice you know. One of the things we're
Speaker 2: huge about parental choice, Uh, and decisions. Let let them decide.
Speaker 2: We've just approved a classical charter school for our district
Speaker 2: and which was so huge, and we know that it
Speaker 2: could take away some kids out of our schools, which
Speaker 2: could cost us funding. But here's the thing we're we're
Speaker 2: big about parents' choice. They get to choose what kind
Speaker 2: of education they want their kids to half. And not
Speaker 2: everybody thinks the public schools is great. Not everybody thinks
Speaker 2: through school is great. Not everybody thinks private school. Everybody
Speaker 2: needs to deciph on themselves what they want to do.
Speaker 2: And I mean, here's the deal. We are here to
Speaker 2: educate kids, not raise kids. We've got to get back
Speaker 2: to the basics of reading, writing, and math. Our school is,
Speaker 2: not only as a state, but as a nation, keep falling.
Speaker 2: I think this is because we have lost sight at
Speaker 2: the most important task, educating the kids. Let's get back
Speaker 2: to direct teaching in a way from the garbage.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one of the things that I've been really reading
Speaker 3: more and more about and as a region. It was
Speaker 3: a big deal at the University of Colorado. But the
Speaker 3: administrative blow and the increase in amounts of money and
Speaker 3: the size of the administration in schools, so very little
Speaker 3: of the increase in funding is going into the classroom.
Speaker 3: It's going into hiring more administrators. Has that been the
Speaker 3: case for you in albert Not so much.
Speaker 2: We're because we're so low funded. We really watch our dolls,
Speaker 2: and you know, at this point we're having to let
Speaker 2: go of teachers, so we you know, I don't see
Speaker 2: that quite as much. So, so we're a little bit
Speaker 2: better than the majority of public schools, So you do,
Speaker 2: I do see that a lot in our neighboring districts.
Speaker 2: And you know, we've done, We've got we've got a
Speaker 2: new superintendent and he's been really trying to make that
Speaker 2: dollar go a lot farther than it has ever been
Speaker 2: able to and which is awesome, and go ahead.
Speaker 3: No, I was just going to say, the work you're
Speaker 3: doing as a school board member is incredibly important. It's
Speaker 3: one of the most difficult positions a to run a
Speaker 3: race for, but be to actually make a difference when
Speaker 3: you're actually in the seat, And I applaud all you're
Speaker 3: doing and the work you're doing to push back against
Speaker 3: this ACLU lawsuit. What happens next in the lawsuit.
Speaker 2: That we're waving on we haven't even honestly even to
Speaker 2: get it literally just happened this last week, so really
Speaker 2: not a whole lot. We're just kind of waiting to
Speaker 2: see what the next steps are. And you know, all
Speaker 2: I have to say to people is I don't think
Speaker 2: risk sexual content is appropriate for children to read. And
Speaker 2: I don't see how anybody could argue that point. Where
Speaker 2: do we draw the line? That's my question, Where do
Speaker 2: we draw the line? What if somebody wants to put
Speaker 2: in Playboy or fifty shapes of gray in our schools?
Speaker 2: Should we allow that? I think these books should be
Speaker 2: decided between parents and to discuss with their kids. But
Speaker 2: where is that line? And it just baffles me that
Speaker 2: parents can't get to choose that. And I just really
Speaker 2: think the problem is you can't take back a book
Speaker 2: once it's read, Like, you can't take that back once
Speaker 2: a child reads an inappropriate book. You can't. You can't
Speaker 2: take that back hoe where you can put in place
Speaker 2: guardrails to protect kids from not reading so that their
Speaker 2: family wouldn't think it's appropriate. You know, our wonderful superintendent
Speaker 2: once said, whatever values children come to school with, they
Speaker 2: should go home with those things values, whether we agree
Speaker 2: with them or not.
Speaker 3: That's wonderful. I love that quote. I'm going to use
Speaker 3: that going forward. If only, if only that was happening
Speaker 3: in all schools across America. Well, thank you, Heather for
Speaker 3: all you're doing. We applaud you, and you know, hold firm.
Speaker 3: We've got your back. I'll actually put out on X
Speaker 3: the link so that people can find it on my
Speaker 3: X account, which is heidikan all at Heidi Ganal and
Speaker 3: share that and let's get you some funding so you
Speaker 3: guys can fight back, but Heather, keep up the good
Speaker 3: fight and we will get an update soon.
Speaker 2: So much tidy?
Speaker 3: All right, everyone, This is Heidi Ganal filling in for
Speaker 3: Dan Kapls. We're going to take a quick break and
Speaker 3: come back and wrap up with some predictions for twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five. Please call in at three oh three seven
Speaker 3: one three eight two five five or text your predictions
Speaker 3: to five seven seven three nine with the first word Dan.
Speaker 3: We'll see you in just a minute. Good afternoon, everyone,
Speaker 3: It's Heidigan All filling in for Dan Kapliss our last
Speaker 3: few minutes together. I thought we'd talk a little bit
Speaker 3: about predictions to kind of tee up tomorrow's show, which
Speaker 3: I want lots of feedback tomorrow. I need lots of
Speaker 3: call ins and text messages and ping me tonight on
Speaker 3: Twitter if you want to give me your predictions for
Speaker 3: next year. Next year, it's only a couple days away.
Speaker 3: I thought I would start with no stra Damas. Do
Speaker 3: you guys remember that guy that we all read about
Speaker 3: at some point in our in our education process. He
Speaker 3: was a French astrologer and a physician from the fifteen hundreds,
Speaker 3: and he's famous for predicting major historical events. Supposedly he
Speaker 3: predicted eight off Hitler's rise to nine to eleven attacks
Speaker 3: and even COVID. So I looked up real quick, like,
Speaker 3: what are his predictions for twenty twenty five? Well, his
Speaker 3: first prediction is an end to the Russia Ukraine War.
Speaker 3: So his predictions for twenty twenty five say that they,
Speaker 3: let's see, people are going to be exhausted from a
Speaker 3: prolonged war and it's going to push both sides to
Speaker 3: seek peace. Or it could it just be Trump pushing that.
Speaker 3: I don't know, we'll see. The other thing it predicts
Speaker 3: or he predicts way back then was plague and more
Speaker 3: in England. He said it's going to be a really
Speaker 3: tough year for England with cruel wars and the outbreak
Speaker 3: of an ancient plague that could prove more devastating than
Speaker 3: any enemy. Interesting and finally, this is the kicker. I'm
Speaker 3: not sure that Trump can do anything about this. Maybe
Speaker 3: Elon can. But an asteroid collision with Earth. He says
Speaker 3: that asteroid is going to come dangerously close to Earth
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty five. So interesting stuff.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: On the political front, it's going to be it's going
Speaker 3: to be a wild year because we've got some really
Speaker 3: important school board races, obviously in city council races. We're
Speaker 3: going to have a very crazy legislative session with the
Speaker 3: Dems still holding a strong majority, and Jared Polis probably
Speaker 3: wants everybody to stay kind of moderate insane because he
Speaker 3: wants to run for president in twenty eight so he's
Speaker 3: got a not veto too many bills and act like
Speaker 3: he's keeping everybody Kumbaia and that this truly is the
Speaker 3: blue model for the rest of the country. That's what
Speaker 3: he wants people to think. I think he's underestimating the
Speaker 3: upset by people in Colorado, but I think the legislative
Speaker 3: session isn't going to hold back. The legislators on the
Speaker 3: Democrat side are going to do all the crazy things
Speaker 3: they do, and Polus is going to either have to
Speaker 3: use his veto pen or go along with it not
Speaker 3: and it's going to hurt him badly when he tries
Speaker 3: to play moderate in the presidential race. He also it's
Speaker 3: really important for Polis in the next year or two,
Speaker 3: the last couple of years of his governorship to make
Speaker 3: sure the Colorado stays very, very blue, because that's kind
Speaker 3: of what he's riding this wave on right now. Is
Speaker 3: we were one of the only states to not go
Speaker 3: farther right and to go, you know, or at least
Speaker 3: stay neutral or a little more blue. I don't know
Speaker 3: how that ended up. Finally, I think it did go
Speaker 3: a little bit red. But he's kind of banking his
Speaker 3: reputation on being the guy that turned Colorado blue and
Speaker 3: kept it blue throughout the Trump phenomenon of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 3: so that's going to be interesting to see. Would also
Speaker 3: be interesting to see who enters the governor's race on
Speaker 3: the Democrat side for twenty twenty six. I think Joe
Speaker 3: no Goose is probably one of their top candidates. He's
Speaker 3: the congressman up in CD two, which is bolder and
Speaker 3: some of the mountain areas, and he's one of the
Speaker 3: most powerful people on the Democrat side in Congress, so
Speaker 3: it'll be interesting to see if he leaves that is
Speaker 3: willing to give that up to run for governor. And
Speaker 3: then of course Jenna Griswold I think thinks that she
Speaker 3: has a shot, which is a pity, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: after all she's pulled in the last few months. And
Speaker 3: then Phil Wiser, I'm pretty sure that's Governor Poulis's guy,
Speaker 3: But I don't know that exactly. It's just my gut feeling.
Speaker 3: But Phil Wiser's been teeing up for quite a while
Speaker 3: to run for governor, and so those three are probably
Speaker 3: going to battle it out. Maybe Mike Johnston gets in
Speaker 3: that race, and oh my goodness, he's made a disaster
Speaker 3: out of Denver, Jesse, have you been down to downtown
Speaker 3: Denver lately?
Speaker 4: I live in downtown Denver, SUS. Yes, every day. I'm
Speaker 4: in the heart of it down there in thirtieth in Blake.
Speaker 4: But yes, it's a disaster.
Speaker 3: How on earth is Mike Johnston going to make a
Speaker 3: play for governor when Denver has gotten so much worse?
Speaker 3: I mean, I know he has a lot of money
Speaker 3: backing him, with Reid Huffman, the LinkedIn guy, and Mike Bloomberg,
Speaker 3: and maybe they come around and help him repair his
Speaker 3: reputation with just lots of dollars and lots of fuzzy
Speaker 3: warm ads like polisted when I was running. But what's
Speaker 3: your take on Denver? Are people upset yet? Is it
Speaker 3: hurting enough that they want to vote differently.
Speaker 4: Because there's just too many transplants here that'll always vote
Speaker 4: blue no matter what, and that's unfortunate.
Speaker 3: But it is.
Speaker 4: If it continues to get worse, and it's hard to
Speaker 4: get imagine it getting much worse, maybe that'll change. We'll see.
Speaker 3: Golly, I hope it changes. I want to go back
Speaker 3: to downtown Denver and have fun and go to Rockies
Speaker 3: games and and just have a good time. And it's
Speaker 3: just it's not very fun to go to downtown Denver anymore. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: an interesting thing's happening right now internationally Canada. It looks
Speaker 3: like is going to replace Trudeau with a conservative leader.
Speaker 3: That would be really good for everyone. And hopefully we
Speaker 3: get the border up next year, that the border walls
Speaker 3: up and they do a good job of firming things
Speaker 3: up so that we can stop the influx of bad
Speaker 3: guys and fentanyl across our border. And let's hope that
Speaker 3: no Astronamis is right, that the Ukraine war is done
Speaker 3: and that we don't have to worry about sending our
Speaker 3: young men over there to help fight a war that
Speaker 3: seems endless and unnecessary or unfortunate. I also think it'd
Speaker 3: be interesting to see if by the end of next
Speaker 3: year where it stands with Panama and Greenland is Greenland?
Speaker 3: Another state is Panama too? Do we control the Panama Canal?
Speaker 3: What do you think about that? Does he even keeping
Speaker 3: an eye on that at all?
Speaker 4: I saw Trump said they better mind their p's and
Speaker 4: q's or he's going to go down there and paying
Speaker 4: them on get them all straightened out.
Speaker 3: Oh that's fun. I think it's going to be an
Speaker 3: interesting year ahead. I'm so excited to be on with
Speaker 3: you guys today dishing all this fun political stuff and
Speaker 3: talking about football, election integrity and school board craziness. I
Speaker 3: will be back tomorrow. Have a wonderful evening and happy
Speaker 3: New Year's Eve eve. Talk to you soon. It's Heidik
Speaker 3: and All filling in for Dan Kaplas