Two Denver election employees fear they will be fired today for criticizing the city’s election practices.
One, Fred Sandoval, filed a free-speech lawsuit in federal court Wednesday against the city and its three-member Election Commission. He contends that Denver County Clerk Wayne Vaden – Mayor John Hickenlooper’s lone appointee to the board – retaliated against him for saying the city intentionally limited turnout in the May 3 election that approved a $378 million justice center.
The other employee, city elections spokesman Alan McBeth, found a draft of his own termination notice Wednesday in an office meeting room. The letter accuses him of “engaging in partisan activities” when he told a TV reporter the jail is “just a facility that some people believe is not absolutely necessary in downtown Denver.”
Their actions are scheduled for discussion at a commission meeting today.
Wednesday’s developments follow a string of controversies surrounding Denver elections. A Denver Post analysis of November’s general election showed that nearly 40 percent of voting problems in Colorado occurred in Denver.
Asked about his run-in with Sandoval, Vaden said: “You might want to ask him whether it was insubordination when he spoke out.”
It was “unfortunate,” he said, that McBeth found a draft letter firing him. “Sometimes you end up throwing away a draft letter.”
Independently elected commissioners Sandy Adams and Susan Rogers – both named in the lawsuit – and election commission executive director Karon Hatchett could not be reached.
Sandoval’s suit was filed by lawyer Jack Kintzele, a former Denver election commissioner also representing McBeth.
The complaint says Vaden pushed for in-person voting over exclusively mail-in ballots. That, it alleges, minimized turnout in the May 3 election.
The lower, more predictable voter numbers may have helped Hickenlooper win the jail with 56 percent of the vote. A similar measure floated by former Mayor Wellington Webb lost in 2001.
Hickenlooper spokeswoman Lindy Eichenbaum Lent said the mayor’s office did not influence election procedures.
At a May 11 commission review of the election, Sandoval criticized the process. That upset Vaden, who tried to fire Sandoval on the spot, the suit said.
“It’s unprecedented in the history of the Election Commission that a commissioner … would take it upon themselves to fire an employee,” said former election commissioner Jan Tyler.
Sandoval’s lawsuit also claims Vaden pushed to relocate the Election Commission warehouse to a building owned by an unidentified “political friend.”
Lent said commissioners – not the mayor – unanimously chose the site after a long search.
A draft termination letter written by Hatchett slams McBeth for “being grossly negligent” in making “editorial comments” in an April 23 interview about the justice center.
McBeth – the well-known public face behind Denver elections – contends his comments were fact, not opinion.
Tyler called the employees’ possible dismissals “more than a witch hunt.”
“This is an inquisition led by the same incompetent, unthinking, brutal enforcers that are executing the will of the mayor,” she said.
Hickenlooper’s office called Tyler’s comments “laughable.”
Said Lent: “Our administration was not aware or involved in these decisions.”
Staff writer Susan Greene can be reached at 303-820-1589 or sgreene@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Alicia Caldwell can be reached at 303-820-1930 or acaldwell@denverpost.com.
