In Buena Vista in central Colorado, colorful flyers with artful graphic design hang in shop windows, advertising summer festivals. Alongside, a smaller one promoted an event on Friday to “eliminate rigged machines” and “minimize fraud,” with Joe Oltmann, the Denver-area podcaster who claimed he had personal knowledge – and proof – that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
Oltmann has never produced any evidence or a smoking gun. He’s just talk – much of it paranoid, hateful and violent.
Oltmann grips tightly this false narrative. Now, Oltmann and others are taking their show on the road in a grassroots effort to keep the lie alive in rural small town America, such as Buena Vista, population 2,988. His tour is a niche market for election deniers and, chances are, they’ll make their way to the Southwest.
Oltmann said Eric Coomer, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems’ former director of product strategy and security, was personally responsible for rigging the election. Coomer’s professional and personal lives were mostly ruined after Donald Trump’s team joined in, sharing the false theory over conservative media outlets.
In December 2020, Coomer sued Oltmann for defamation, along with Trump’s campaign, a number of campaign surrogates and pro-Trump media outlets. (Coomer’s lawsuits are separate from Dominion’s defamation settlement with Fox News for $787.5 million.)
Coomer’s legal action claims Oltmann’s false remarks have driven much of the alleged conspiracy.
Once prolific tweeter Trump was the source for the stolen election myth. Now, people like Oltmann breathe life into it.
David Clements, a former prosecutor and business law professor from the University of New Mexico, was also scheduled at the event. Clements’ academic career ended over disagreements involving COVID-19 policies and the 2020 election. According to Reuters, Clements’ colleague, history professor Jamie Bronstein, filed a complaint about his public support for the Jan. 6 insurrection, accusing Clements of violating professional standards by trying to foment a civil disturbance. The board took no action but Clements retaliated by posting her email address online, urging followers to contact her.
Bronstein received 300 emails and calls, including threats and sexual insults. “You will see hell open up,” read one, reported by Reuters. “I will rip your sick head off,” was another. The school had to provide Bronstein with a police escort.
Clements believes election fraud is treason, and traitors should face hanging or firing squads.
Reuters also reported that Oltmann called Clements “a lightning rod of truth and courage,” and asked listeners to contribute to Clements, which they did to more than $300,000.
When will truth be enough? Multiple courts, audits and news investigations have repeatedly disproved claims of 2020 election fraud. Oltmann only brings trouble.
Sadly, it’s not about truth. This is an emotional movement. Not one based in fact.
Oltmann has a pattern of violent rhetoric, too. In one episode, he suggested, that Gov. Jared Polis be hanged, saying, “Stretch that rope.” Later, he explained it was a joke. But it was reckless and dangerous.
Just ask Coomer, who is waiting for his day in court. He and family members dodged death threats after Oltmann’s careless language.
Or ask frequent Oltmann target Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who now travels with a security detail, a first for the office.
Oltmann and Clements are evangelists for false theories. But they’re more than just noise – they casually put other Americans’ lives at risk.
