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Congressional candidate George Athanasopoulos tweets that CO GOP should 'challenge every ballot'

Posted at 10:48 PM, Oct 19, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-20 00:59:37-04

JEFFERSON COUNTY -- A Colorado Republican running for Congress wants each ballot to be challenged by the state Republican Party.

George Athanasopoulos is running against Rep. Ed Perlmutter in Colorado's 7th Congressional District, which covers the northern and western parts of the metro area.

He tweeted the following:

"What are these revelations," Denver7 political reporter Marshall Zelinger asked Athanasopoulos.

"These revelations are the videos that came out in the last 48 hours," said Athanasopoulos.

The videos to which he's referring are from the conservative Project Veritas group. The edited undercover recordings posted in the last two days show Democratic operatives talking about disrupting Republican rallies and covering up voter fraud.

"It is Democrats bragging at the highest level about committing voter fraud," said Athanasopoulos.

Even though there is no reference to Colorado elections in the video that has been posted, Athanasopoulos believes there could be a connection to Democrats running for office in Colorado.

Denver7 is unable to verify the authenticity of that claim.

"It's not that the secretary of state is not doing his job, it's not that the county clerk and recorders -- they're not doing their jobs, what this is, is a system that is purposefully weakened and allows for this type of fraud described by top-level Democrats."

He believes an all-mail ballot election with same day in-person voting can lead to fraud.

"If they're bragging about committing election fraud, even if we don't know how exactly how they plan to do it, I think it's only prudent that we maintain our vigilance to protect the integrity of the election," said Athanasopoulos.

Election judges from both parties already watch over the counting and processing of ballots to ensure integrity.

Denver7 checked all 64 counties, and it turns out the majority of county clerks are the same party of Athanasopoulos.

Of Colorado's 64 counties, 45 county clerks are Republican, 16 are Democrats and three are unaffiliated.

"This is not about their political affiliation, and this is not about how vigilant they are or how good they are at their jobs, this is a system that was purposefully weakened," said Athanasopoulos. "It has nothing to do with the competency or the intent of these officials; it has everything to do with a system that is not designed to protect the integrity of this election."

"Are you jumping on the 'Trump train' by saying the election is rigged?" asked Zelinger.

"This is not a conspiracy. This has nothing to do with Donald Trump," said Athanasopoulos.

At Tuesday's campaign stops in Colorado Springs and Grand Junction, Trump talked about a rigged election, blaming the media and millions of illegal voters who are registered that he said should not be.

At Wednesday night's third and final Presidential Debate, moderate Chris Wallace asked Trump about his repeated claims of a rigged election.

"…you will absolutely accept the result of this election?" asked Wallace.

"I will look at it at the time. I'm not looking at anything now. I'll look at it at the time," said Trump.

"If you win, if Mike Coffman wins, if a Republican wins, are you going to challenge those ballots?" Zelinger asked Athanasopoulos.

"It depends on circumstance," he said.

"Can you tell me today that if you win, you will follow through with your tweet and challenge some of the ballots?" asked Zelinger.

"I'll tell you what, if I win, it'll probably be the greatest surprise to the state of Colorado, and to me personally," said Athanasopoulos.

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