Douglas County Election Notebook: The State Charged Tim Dietz's Campaign Over Its Yard Signs and Agreed to Settle, Boebert's Order Holds, and Marx's Refund Day Arrives

Three weeks until the polls close, and the week's best story was sitting in a PDF on the Secretary of State's docket that nobody had opened. Here is what moved, with a link to our page on each. Weekly until Nov. 3.

Dietz: the state's complaint, and the settlement nobody announced

On September 25 the Elections Division of the Colorado Secretary of State, represented by the Attorney General's office, filed a complaint with the state's administrative hearing officer against Vote Tim Dietz Douglas County Treasurer, the candidate committee of the Republican nominee for county treasurer. The complaint says the committee spent $6,182.73 during the June primary on yard signs, postcards, banners and signs that carried a "paid for by" line reading only "Vote Tim Dietz Douglas County Treasurer," without naming the committee's registered agent, which state law requires when the payer is not a natural person. The registered agent is Tim Dietz. The signs named him as the candidate; the complaint's point is that they did not name him as the agent.

The case started with a July 2 complaint from a Lloyd Guthrie that alleged something different: that the disclaimers were too small under the Secretary's rules. The Division investigated, found the type was larger than 8 points and therefore fine, and then found the registered-agent omission on its own. It asked the hearing officer for penalties under Rule 23.4.3.

The same day it filed, the Division filed a motion to stay, saying "the parties have reached an agreement to resolve the allegations" and would submit a settlement to the Deputy Secretary of State for approval, after which the Division would move to dismiss. The hearing officer granted the stay on October 7, and added a note to the Division's lawyer: the complaint cites the wrong subsection of the Fair Campaign Practices Act, the one covering ballot-issue spending rather than electioneering communications, and "respondents in most cases brought by the Elections Division are lay people" who need to be able to find the law they are accused of breaking. The settlement terms are not on the docket yet. The campaign's website says nothing about it. TRACER lists the underlying case, ED 2026-63, as "pending compliance."

What it is and is not: a disclaimer case over about six thousand dollars of primary-season signs, headed for a settlement, in a race where the Republican has outraised the Democrat and is favored in a county that has never elected a Democratic treasurer. It is also the second Douglas County Republican on the November ballot with a campaign-finance case on the state's docket this fall, after the Marx fine below, which is the kind of pattern voters can weigh for themselves. We have added the case to the treasurer race page and the Dietz profile, and will post the settlement when the docket does.

Marx: refund day

Today is the first of the three deadlines in the October 2 decision that fined Victor Marx's campaign $57,647.16 over 200 over-limit contributions: refunds to donors by October 15, anything unrefunded to charity by October 26, certification to the state by November 2. The docket still shows the case at "initial decision" with nothing filed since September 25. Compliance is not something the docket shows in real time; the November 2 certification is where it becomes visible. The fine, in full

Weiser: still nothing on the docket

Phil Weiser's cure deadline in the state's review of Danielle Neuschwanger's complaints passed October 6. As of Thursday the hearing-officer docket carries no Weiser case and no Neuschwanger entry, and the office has published nothing either way. Who is on the governor's ballot

Boebert: the order holds until Nov. 16, and the money is due today

The October 1 hearing we flagged last notebook was in Weld County Court, where Judge Dana Nichols kept in place the temporary protection order Lauren Boebert obtained against David Wheeler, the North Carolina PAC operator whose House ethics complaint accuses her of relationships with staff members and a $200,000 payment to a former aide, claims she calls "utterly false," per the Denver Gazette. The judge did not make the order permanent; the next hearing is November 16, two weeks after the election. Wheeler filed an anti-SLAPP motion the day before, arguing the order is retaliation for his reporting; the Gazette says Boebert has two weeks to respond. Her attorney, Scott Gessler, told KDVR the order "remains in full force and effect. We are going to be going back to court." Wheeler's lawyer, Dan Ernst, called it "a petition to try to restrain a journalist from reporting on a sitting congressperson."

Separately, today is the FEC's third-quarter deadline. As of this morning the newest report on file for Boebert, Eileen Laubacher, Mark Baisley, John Hickenlooper and Jason Crow is still the July quarterly, through June 30. When the October reports land we will refresh the CD4 analysis, which named the money numbers that would prove it wrong, and the race pages. Last Sunday's piece on the first public CD4 poll is the newest thing we have.

7A: vote the ballot you have

The county's October 12 voter-resources notice puts it plainly: "Front Range Passenger Rail District Ballot Issue 7A appears on every Douglas County ballot," and votes on it will count only from voters inside the updated district, which in Douglas County means the part of Littleton inside the county and Sterling Ranch Colorado Metropolitan Districts Nos. 1 through 7. "You do not need a new ballot." Vote 7A or leave it blank; the rest of your ballot is unaffected either way. That is the county's first written statement on the error since it surfaced October 5. Our running page on 7A

Parker: the recording that is not there

Eight days after the Parker Chamber's members-only council forum, the event page still says the recording would be "posted to the Chamber's social media ASAP after the event," and the chamber's events page has no link. We will fold it into the Parker council page when it exists.

The dates

Twenty-three voter service and polling centers open in three phases. The first four open Monday, October 19, which is also the day counties begin processing ballots: the county's former Human Services office at 4400 Castleton Court in Castle Rock (the old building, the county stresses, not the new one), Douglas County Parks and Trails at 9651 S. Quebec St. and Westridge Recreation Center at 9650 Foothills Canyon Blvd., both in Highlands Ranch, and Parker Town Hall at 20120 E. Mainstreet, weekdays 8 to 5 through November 2, Saturday October 31, and 7 to 7 on Election Day. Nine more open October 30 and the last ten on November 2. Twenty-three drop boxes are open now. The county's track-your-ballot page follows your envelope from mailing to counting; if yours has not arrived, the elections office is at 125 Stephanie Place in Castle Rock, 303-660-7444, weekdays 8 to 5. October 26 is the last day to request a mail ballot. Everything must be in hand by 7 p.m. November 3. Your ballot is in the mail, and what to do if it is not

New on the site this week

The judges page remained the most-read page on the site last week, and 413 of the searches that bring people here now land on page one of Google, which is the number we set for this checkpoint. New, and not about the election: edition eight of the openings tracker, the first verified closings roundup, and the fall-colors guide's weekly update, which says this is the weekend.

More: every race and measure on your ballot. We do not endorse candidates. Campaigns can send corrections to hello@discoverdougco.com.