Mailbag: Preventing election mischief

Dear Lyons Area Residents,
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have issued guidance to prevent “election mischief”: 

Be alert to electronically-transmitted misinformation.  Verify the spelling of website and email addresses that may look legitimate but are not; cyber-criminals forge websites with slight misspellings and other minor changes to try to trick you.

Don’t forward information on social media that you haven’t evaluated/verified with trustworthy resources, including the primary source (if possible).

Ignore false claims of hacked voter information.  Who you vote for is private; your party

Report potential election crimes to the FBI (www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices) or to your local election commission.

The City and County of Denver is presently streaming a live, 24-hour video of ballots being received and processed to counter misinformation about mail-in ballots ( https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/news/watch-denvers-elections-division-process-ballots-live/ ).


Election results are never finalized on the night of the election, even if the media declares otherwise.  (Think 1948 and the premature headline that wrongly declared, “Dewey defeats Truman.”)  Given the COVID-19 pandemic and a probable increase in mail-in ballots, the timeline for declaring results may be extended slightly.   Regardless, results aren’t final until they’ve been fully canvassed and then certified, which can take days or weeks.  Be wary of any candidate who tries to hijack our democratic process and claim victory before all votes are counted.

Thank you, Denise Fazio, Ed.D, Longmont 

Disclaimer: The opinions and alleged facts expressed in “letters to the editor” are not necessarily a reflection of the official policy or position of any staff member or contributing writer or that of the Lyons Recorder. The material has not been researched or confirmed by the newspaper staff.