DENVER — Election day is 40 days away, but some Denver voters are concerned about election integrity.
Roughly 100 people gathered at Montview Blvd Presbyterian Church in Denver Thursday evening to hear from Denver County Clerk and Recorder Paul López about this upcoming election.
The event was put on by the Clerk's office and Together Colorado. Organizers like Katy Lunsford told Denver7's Tyler Melito that voting is a great opportunity.
"To me, this is one of our incredible privileges about being Americans: we're allowed to vote," Lunsford shared.
Lunsford added that throughout the course of the next few weeks, they plan on educating voters.
"We're going to go to our infrequent voter neighbors to tell them we need you to vote in this election," detailed Lunsford. "Not telling who to vote for, we just need you to go out there to vote."
Some attendees voiced their concerns to Melito about election security.
"Voting, as it has been in my lifetime, has been straight up, and now I am concerned," said Francis Rollins.
"I'm concerned that some people might feel pressure or intimidated around the polls or around voting at all because of what's happened with immigrants, people of color, especially," added Laura Parks.
Jana Everett has called Colorado home for more than five decades. She told Melito she has never seen confidence in elections like this.
"It's never been this fraught. We've never had a federal government who behaves in the way the current federal government does. So, and I think we're all scared a bit," Everett detailed.
But Everett is used this event to get ready for when ballots are mailed out starting October 5.
"At my church we're going to do a forum on the ballot issues," Everett shared.
Corky Thompson, another attendee, stressing the significance of people not being afraid to vote.
"They think that their voice is no longer important and not heard," Thompson outlined. "So I think part of being here is to learn more so that I can convince people they need to speak up."
Prior to the event Melito spoke with Clerk Lopez about an array of topics including election security.
"We do it the right way, we do it the best way in the country, and to take advantage of that," López told Melito.
Melito asked about recent threats by President Donald Trump and the Federal Government regarding mail-in voting and ICE agents possibly being at polling locations.
"We plan for everything, and you know, walking through folks and how we plan for what scenarios we plan for things like blizzards, power outages, unfortunately, the threats of the federal government going to polls," Lopez said. "All these threats, the the threats of sending ICE to polls, the agents to polls, threats to try to take away mail-in ballots. It's to to keep people from participating."
López also told the crowd that he has been working with officials across Denver to use every tool available to them to take action necessary to keep Denver's election secure.
López also stressed the other resources at Denver's disposal, like the city's drop boxes for people to drop off their ballots.
"We have 49 of them in the in the city. They exist for a reason," said López.
And shared the joy this time of year brings for him.
"I get really excited when it comes to election season, it's my Super Bowl," López detailed. "I think sometimes, the relationship I have with election season, is the same relationship that Mariah Carey probably has with Christmas."
