DENVER — A man with a reported history of spreading election conspiracies has been arrested on suspicion of arson after allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at the Archuleta County Clerk and Recorder’s Office in mid-June.
The suspect, identified as 71-year-old William Wayne Bryant by our partners at CPR News, is accused of firebombing the county clerk’s offices in the early hours of June 12.
Denver7 was not immediately able to obtain an arrest affidavit in the case, but CPR News reported Bryan allegedly targeted the room where the county’s Dominion voting machines are stored. The Denver-based company has been at the center of false allegations that its voting systems helped Democrats steal the 2020 election from President Donald Trump.
“It is appalling that a Colorado elections office was firebombed, and even more so that the suspect has a history of spreading election conspiracies. Attacks on democratic institutions must be strongly condemned,” said Secretary of State Jena Griswold in statement Monday lauding the suspect’s arrest. “I take any threat to elections incredibly seriously, and thank law enforcement for their hard work on this case. We will support the Archuleta County Clerk's Office and ensure they are able to fully recover from this attack.”
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A spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said Bryant was arrested on June 26 after a joint investigation by the Pagosa Springs Police Department, the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office, and other law enforcement agencies at the federal and state level.
The spokesperson referenced information included in the affidavit claiming the suspect has not only spread election conspiracies but has also publicly expressed “anti-tax beliefs.”
Bryant was arrested on charges of first-degree arson and possession of an explosive or incendiary device, both felonies, according to the SOS spokesperson.
Colorado election officials no stranger to election conspiracy claims
This isn’t the first time that election conspiracies have led to real world consequences in the state.
Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was sentenced to nearly a decade behind bars last year for letting an unauthorized person have access to the county’s voting machines, where hard drive images of Dominion Voting Systems software were copied and then shared to a right-wing website before they were discussed by Peters and others at conspiracy theorist and MyPillow salesman Mike Lindell’s South Dakota symposium.
A jury last month found Lindell had defamed a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems after the 2020 presidential election and was ordered to pay him $2.3 million in damages, far less than the $62.7 million the plaintiff had asked for to help send a message to discourage attacks on election workers.
During the trial, Lindell stuck by his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen but did not call any experts to present evidence of his claims.
A 2024 poll conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law showed that 36% of local election officials have reported being harassed, abused or threatened due to their job – a 6% jump from a year prior. More than half of those have been threatened over the phone and in-person, according to the poll.
Those threats have led to election official turnover, which stands at 36% nationwide as of last year, per a report by the Bipartisan Policy Center. In Colorado, the rate of election official turnover is greater – at nearly 40%.
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