The Colorado Republican Party has entombed itself in a modern-day retelling of the boy who cried wolf. For three years, prominent voices have peddled claims of an election system rife with voter fraud, rigged results and stolen outcomes in Colorado — with each one repeatedly proven false.

Even after voters rejected Proposition HH by 20 percentage points — staunchly reaffirming the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights long held sacrosanct by the Colorado GOP — the party couldn’t get out of its own way.

After Chairman Dave Williams publicly praised “a vigilant electorate” for “rightfully rebuffing” Prop HH in “a resounding triumph,” his election security committee chairman, Ron Hanks, sent a Nov. 22 email explicitly discouraging county GOPs from agreeing to certify the election results.

Five county parties followed Hanks’ diktat: Boulder, El Paso, Jefferson, La Plata and Larimer.

“I cannot recommend to any canvass board member that they sign it,” Hanks — who swears Trump won the 2020 election and possibly in Colorado, despite a 14-point loss — recently said on a podcast.

“Here’s why: it is outside the scope of their duties because their duties have been narrowed down to praising and heiling the Hitler in the secretary of state’s office,” he explained. “(W)e’ve got to be on record that these elections are still as flawed as we discovered they were in 2020.”

The unhinged rhetoric embodied in Hanks’ inflammatory comparison of Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who is Jewish, to Hitler — especially coming amid a surge in antisemitism, mostly on the Left — prompted the Colorado County Clerks Association to break its silence.

In a letter sent to elected officials statewide, the association’s executive board decried such “efforts to undermine our elections.”

“Unfortunately, it is clear that those who spread lies and distrust of our institutions aren’t going away and, in some cases, are better resourced and louder than ever,” they wrote. “These people are not heroes, they are dishonest actors, grifters, and bullies, who deserve only our distain and contempt.”

Contra the impression given by the state GOP — which insists that all “real Republicans” reject Colorado’s elections — the majority of county clerks are Republican.

The CCCA executive board consists of 10 clerks — nine of whom are Republican. Its executive director, Matt Crane, is the former Republican clerk of Arapahoe County.

Let’s be clear: The fringe’s assertions about Colorado’s elections, as adopted by state GOP leadership, do not reflect the views of most elected Republicans, nor of most everyday Republicans.

“It’s unfortunate that we felt compelled to do this, but there was some conversation that was happening around elections in Colorado, specifically by leaders of the state GOP — ratcheting up the language around elections and stolen elections, election denialism, our elections aren’t verifiable, there’s no citizen oversight,” Crane told me on 710KNUS Saturday.

He pointed to Hanks’ email as well as claims by Williams that Colorado has “no fair elections” and speculation that civil war could spark if election fraud isn’t addressed — cautioning that the incendiary rhetoric has suppressed voter turnout “because people don’t think their votes count.”

“The executive board felt very strongly that we needed to respond but do so in a way where we reached out to other elected officials to say, look, so many of you know the truth. Now it’s time, we all need to have courage to stand up to some of these bullies and bad actors and start speaking the truth,” Crane added.

In Colorado elections, each county’s Republican and Democratic Party sends a representative to the canvass board, which also includes the county clerk and recorder. The board participates in the pre-election logic and accuracy test (LAT) and the post-election risk-limiting audit (RLA). Then, they conduct the “canvass” — a formal review and certification of election results.

Here’s the thing: Among the five county parties that wouldn’t certify, all five approved both the LAT and RLA results.

The pre-election test is a procedure that even indicted former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters — an election rejection leader who doggedly refuses to accept that she lost last year’s Republican primary for secretary of state — has praised.

“We always (pass)!” she cheered in an October 2021 all-staff email. “Great job to our citizen judges and helpers. Eight elections and counting!”

Let’s be real: You can’t sign off on the election equipment — thereby permitting the election to proceed — and the post-election audit — which verifies the accuracy of results — only to refuse certification later so you can gripe about the very process you approved…and then expect to be taken seriously.

The Colorado GOP’s repeated election conspiracy theorizing drowns out any legitimate concerns for improving election integrity. Skepticism hangs over their every assertion.

When the cries of the boy donning a MAGA hat become a cacophony of discernible fictions, who among us will believe his warnings of the wolf at the door?

If Colorado’s elected officials want to encourage voters to feel confident enough to participate, they ought to heed the recommendations of the Republican-led CCCA:

Do not be intimidated; speak up and defend Colorado’s elections when prompted. Contact your county clerk for answers to any questions and encourage community members to participate in our citizen-administered elections.

“We have to put the mission of elections — of accurate elections, of defending the constitution and our laws — over political ambition,” Crane said. “It’s time we do that.”

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and host of “The Jimmy Sengenberger Show” Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on News/Talk 710 KNUS. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.