Dear editor:

I would be remiss in my duty as elected precinct committeewoman if I did not remind Mr. Vanata that 66 live bodies were present at the Jan. 9, 2025 meeting in which the Park County Republican Central Committee endured a very confusing and frustrating voting process resulting in flawed tally counts from the first set of ballots. The chaos, as I describe it, ultimately resulted in the Board of County Commissioners “punting” as he describes it, the decision of appointing a county assessor to a district court judge.

Although he admits that “there were issues,” Mr. Vanata wishes his readers to believe that there was some kind of behind-the-scenes conspiracy and premeditation on the part of “prominent persons” as well as seated county commissioners to thwart the outcome and further alleges the “fix was in!” In reality, to state something as absurd as that is nothing more than an attempt to rewrite history in order to control the narrative.

I was there and I remember. I recall a completely different experience. I personally noted from the first round of voting that the math simply was not mathing. Per the amended and adopted floor rules, the count outcome had to be divisible by five. The announced numbers added up to 417, a value not divisible by five. I was not the only one to recognize that if the first count was inaccurate then the entire vote process was doomed and the outcome would not be representative of the will of the people.

What Mr. Vanata describes as a number of persons confusing the process of tallying the votes by “trying to engage in conversations with the tellers while they were counting ballots” was indeed an attempt to register concern and to do so timely as members of the executive committee were standing near the tellers.

Those persons were attempting to stop a flawed process that would have grave impact on the validity of the floor rules — not to mention create a completely questionable outcome and further setting up the potential for legal action by anyone in the county.

Mr. Bell’s spouse, her name is Stefanie by the way — a duly elected precinct committeewoman in her own right — and one of the 66 voters present that night, did file a petition requesting a district judge fill the vacancy on Jan. 15, 2025, one day after the commissioners voted to reject the nominations provided when they were officially informed of the flawed count by the party chairman.

In her petition, Mrs. Bell accurately describes the events at that meeting and the inaccurate count, with a timeline and supporting documentation. She had ample grounds to file, not only as a resident of the county but having been a witness to it all, just as I was.

What Mr. Vanata negates to include in his narrative is that his own petition to the court, filed two days after Mrs. Bell’s, was denied. He argued that the court should ignore how the list was made and require the commissioner’s to make a decision on the names provided basically because the party provided them.

Thankfully, the court did not find validity in his argument and denied him.

I do not see the integrity in that. This was an election to fulfill a statutory responsibility of the county party. An election that was beyond flawed from the start.

I believe the Board of Commissioners had no choice but to reject the list. And, that Mrs. Bell had the integrity to independently file the petition that ultimately forced the right outcome.

Very truly,

Jennifer R. Lohrenz

Powell