Yesterday’s election was tense. Most of us went to bed thinking the last update of the evening was that the three challengers all had small leads over the incumbents. A late night update at 11:06 flipped that though, showing Mick Bates leading Seth Bryant by 43 votes (4,596 to 4,553) and Cassie Kimbrell leading Mike Knott by 55 votes (4,596 to 4,541). Keegan Barkley maintains her lead over David Illingworth (4,683 to 4,444), though that lead has shrunk to 239 votes (see full results here). Teller County says, on their website, that “all eligible ballots have been received and counted.”

Given the small margins, the next step will be to wait for any ballots to be cured (like if they’re rejected due to signature mismatch). Then, as I understand the law, an automatic recount is triggered if the gap is .5% or less (Seth meets that threshold, Mike does not).

It’s Election Day! In 2021, there were 7,233 votes cast for school board, out of 15,778 eligible to vote for that. I don’t know how many eligible voters are in the district this year but expect a similar number, and I expect higher turnout than 2021 (45.84%). But this is a sort of baseline, so as votes are announced starting at 7PM, you’ll have a sense of if most of the votes have been counted yet (nothing will be announced prior to 7PM).

Every 15 minutes after polls close, the Colorado Secretary of State’s website will be updating this file, assuming the county has provided new information. The SOS’ main election results page is here with additional links to statewide elections. Teller County’s election page is here, though already they’re not updating it with total votes counted (last update was Friday), so I think the Secretary of State’s website is likely to be the best source. Also note that Teller County’s website shows there are a total of 19,763 eligible voters – that’s in the entire county, but many of those do not live in the Woodland Park RE-2 school district (in 2021, there were 21,863 eligible voters, so 72% lived in RE-2).

The voting service center is open 7-7 today at the Woodland Park Library, for in person voting or ballot drop-off.

I think we’ve all received a few pieces of mail by now advertising for the incumbents…you’ll note those have been paid for by an independent expenditure (IE) committee called ‘Citizens for a Vibrant Woodland Park’. Who are they? Let’s follow the money.

The only reported donor to this group is the Western Prosperity Alliance, a Colorado non-profit formed on 6/7/2023 by Scott Gessler. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the district hired Gessler on March 27th to be another of its lawyers. Let that sink in for a minute…a Woodland Park school district attorney filed articles of incorporation for a company used to funnel money into an IE committee established to support the incumbents.

What sort of support did Western Prosperity Alliance provide? On 10/3, they provided $5,450 in ‘legal fees for Citizens for a Vibrant Woodland Park’, and also on that date paid $5,000 in ‘research and consulting fees to Bullhorn Communications‘, a Nebraska advertising firm. Finally, on 10/3, Western Prosperity Alliance donated $22,500 to Citizens for a Vibrant Woodland Park. Western Prosperity Alliance has not reported donations to any other political groups, they have only reported donations to Citizens for a Vibrant Woodland Park. Their current registered agent is “CT Corporation”; before that it was Thomas Bearden.

What can we learn about Citizens for a Vibrant Woodland Park? So far, not much. Their mailing address in Colorado Springs is shared by a couple organizations, the Colorado Liberty Alliance and also The Winter Night Club. William (Bill) Baber is the registered agent for this group; he appears to be an attorney.

Citizens For a Vibrant Woodland Park reported an expense of $3,944.65 on 10/18 for a direct mailing, followed by an expense of $4,522.96 for another direct mailing. Their next mandatory campaign finance filing is due tomorrow, October 30th.

So in summary, we don’t know much about who’s calling the shots with this group, just that one of our district’s attorneys helped start up the entity that is financing it.

Teller County for School Choice is one of a couple known Independent Expenditure Committees set up to influence this year’s school board race (there are some other groups involved but already in existence before this election cycle). These committees are what I think most people would think of as ‘dark money’ – they’re structured as a 501c(4) non-profit, allowing them to take unlimited financial contributions without having to disclose who their donors are.

But this brings us to Teller County for School Choice. On the surface it seemed like just another of these dark money groups, but I realized there’s a big difference. It’s a 501c(3) nonprofit, which meant (as I understand it at least…I’m no lawyer) it could not shield its donors’ identities. This group was started by Heather Scholz, a member of the Woodland Park school district’s District Accountability Committee (DAC) both this year and last, and a small financial supporter of Mick Bates’ campaign (she donated $50). Her group seems to have held a fundraising event at the end of August where they brought in $3,700, but it hasn’t reported any activity since – no new contributions, and no expenses. In the whole scheme of things, a seemingly small player in this election.

I find the details interesting though. Check out their donors (this is public info on TRACER):

• Paul Lundeen, $100 – Brad Miller’s brother in-law. State Senator and minority leader (though he listed his employer as ‘self’ in the finance report, is it possible I have the wrong person here?).
• Lori Thompson, $250 – D49 secretary and school choice advocate
• Kimberly Gilmartin, $100 – Director, school development and outreach, Ascent Classical Academy
• Laura Carno, $250 – Executive director of FASTER Colorado, a group that trains armed school staffers. She’s also part of the Independence Institute.
• Mark Hyatt, $2000 – Co-founder of Falcon Aerolab, which Merit Academy uses for some students as a homeschool enrichment program. Mark’s name appears many times in Merit’s original application, he played some role in helping start that.
• The Open Gate LLC, $300 – the owner, Bethany Drosendahl, is the treasurer for ERBOCES (Ken Witt’s other full-time taxpayer-funded job)
• Terri Carver, $150 – a former colorado state representative, current teacher at the University of Colorado
• James Kretchman, $250 – a co-founder of The Classical Academy
• Steven Durham, $300 – on the board for the Colorado State Board of Education

Not super surprising when you consider the name of this independent expenditure committee, really. But seeing them all in one grouping like that is new to me, usually these are names you hear mentioned here or there but never with such a clear connection.

When I mentioned that Teller County for School Choice has not reported any expenses, that’s not entirely accurate. Heather Scholz failed to file the required paperwork on time, and so of the $3,700 in donor money she’s received to date, she currently owes $600 of that in late filing fees, which she has not yet paid.