Our hospital is a broken-down playground for disease-ridden warlords

I went to Estes Park Health this morning at 9:00 a.m. The ballot box to cast ballots that was supposed to be at the entrance was nowhere in site. The hours posted for casting ballots, both as published in the Trail-Gazette and on a sign posted inside the main entrance, indicated the ballot box was available Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on the day of election (which is tomorrow, Tuesday, 3 May 2022). An employee behind the counter (so much for the fake concern about unauthorized people milling about in the lobby) said to wait, and it would be out soon. It was not. Someone wearing scrubs came down from the second floor holding a ballot, and apparently knew where the ballot box was, or how to prompt the appearance of the ballot box.

While I was waiting, other potential voters also holding ballots came into the foyer. One gentleman indicated in disgust that he went to the emergency room the day before to attempt to cast his ballot, along with his wife's ballot, and was told to drop off these ballots at the school [sic]. Had he followed this advice, it would have been two (more) uncounted votes. I'm sure that is a running joke in the ER, to send potential voters off in the wrong direction. Screw them if they are too stupid to know we can't run real elections at this here joke hospital. Vern Carda, Estes Park Health CEO came waddling down the hall at 9:06 a.m. holding the ballot box, in tandem with the hospital employee wearing scrubs. No apologies, lots of jovial laughter between the two, as if this delay was no big deal. Good thing a hospital employee was available to force the issue. Otherwise, the four other individuals who wanted to vote could have potentially been standing there a lot longer, or simply decided it wasn't worth their trouble. But really, why get worked up? Who cares? Dave and Drew have already won - why bother casting or counting actual votes? I get that this hospital treats their district election as a burden, as something to be avoided at all costs (the CEO already wrote a letter in support of the current board prior to the candidate filing window, an obvious attempt to suppress other candidates, the Trail-Gazette gleefully published it). The results are, just like last time, just like since 2017, when Bill and Co. convinced a clueless trio of Commissioners to go along with the plan, essentially pre-ordained. The Hospital Board and CEO treat elections as similar to a vote for prom king and queen - if we get the ballots out a little late, who cares, if we don't put out a ballot box to allow people to cast their ballot, not big deal, if we don't get around to posting directions for voting at every entrance, and instead let our staff purposefully mislead where people can vote, that really isn't our job. This cycle is no different than the previous three. The hospital board knows that nothing can be done to get them to change their "honestly, who really gives a crap as long as our annointed candidates win?" approach - DOLA doesn't care, CircuitRider might care, but they are 70 miles away, and the town board definitely doesn't care (until it comes time to writing letters of endorsement - At that point, both current and former town board members are quick to stick their noses under the tent into the election). The hospital board knows they can run the election however the hell they want. The League of Women Voters gave two personal guest appearances to one of the candidates during this election cycle. Didn't extend the invitation to anyone else running for hospital board to appear before the LWV, didn't have an in-person forum for questions and answers, just allowed candidates 750 characters (not words, characters) to answer five questions of their (meaning the LWV) choosing. Didn't like the questions? Tough. In state and federal elections, giving one candidate air time without allowing other candidates a similar amount of air time would be a violation of the equal opportunity section of the 1934 Communications Act. In Estes Park, it's just another "oh we aren't partisan" lazy LWV smokescreen. Similarly, the Estes Park Trail-Gazette didn't want an election, was drug into admitting there was an election, and then, once again, selectively vetted the candidates. Two election cycles ago, they reprinted some article from a Colorado Springs newspaper that disparaged a candidate they didn't like. This go-round, they refused to reprint an article from a California newspaper that disparaged a candidate they did like. Ah, who cares? Times are tough in the paper business. What's the big deal? In both cases, the paper left it up to others to do their due diligence for them, and then cherry picked the results. The Trail-Gazette reeks of bias, cannot avoid the stench of bias when they depend for their very existence on hospital (meaning taxpayer-supported) advertising, and willingly engage in the "logrolling in our time" scam, where the hospital puts a member of the paper on the Hospital Foundation in exchange for the paper putting one of the Hospital trustees on their editorial board. The town clerk frets ceaselessly over running a free and fair election. This recent town election was yet another demonstration of the proper way to run a local election as administered by the town clerk. Why does the hospital board never ask for the town clerk's help or advice? Why do town districts holding elections on the first Tuesday in May not pool their resources and run a combined election, day of or mail-in, with every district on one ballot? Because the hospital board is butt hurt and paranoid, and has to send the non-believers a message - We can waste $30,000 however we want, to get the election results we want, and you as taxpayers can't do a thing about it. The hospital board is currently in charge of a skilled team of grown-up juveniles, who pout when they don't get their way. They don't personally want a skilled nursing facility, so rather than ask the town if the town wants or needs a skilled nursing facility, they jettison the skilled nursing facility. This is nothing new: The former mayor, a permanent fixture on the hospital board, refused to allow people to vote on the Loop, because he didn't trust democracy. He was cited by the Denver Post for showing favoritism to one gubernatorial candidate over another https://www.denverpost.com/2014/05/02/thats-not-your-role-mayor-bill-pinkham/ yet never showed the slightest bit of remorse for acting unethically on what was ostensibly an ethics panel. Once again, this hospital board election will not even be close. The two favored candidates will win by a landslide. Any qualified opponents shutter at the Soviet-style barricades they have to overcome to even get their voices heard, or convince their supporters their ballots will have a ballot box to call home. Why is the hospital so scared about running a real, free and fair election? Why is it so important their "team" of the Trail-Gazette and LWV and current board and CEO win by 1000 votes instead of 300 votes, and why do they expend so much effort to make it so hard for the common man, the unpredictable "might not vote in lockstep" prole to cast their vote? Get the ballot box out in the open at the time appointed for it to be there. No excuses. I didn't even have to try hard, didn't have to hire monitors or install a security camera or put up a tip line, to see for myself it was just another typical hospital board election. Don't put your hospital CEO in charge of the ballot box. Are you kidding? The Estes Park Health CEO, who already indicated who he wanted to win, is manning the ballot box? Why should I have any faith that my ballot wasn't immediately taken out and ripped to shreds, given that I called the CEO on the carpet right then and there for not following proper voting protocol? I'm quite certain, just like the board he colludes with, he ran back and called the board president immediately afterward, and the two decided like a couple of callow 15-year-olds caught smoking behind the gym by a meddling principal they were going to show me. Somehow Grow up, Estes Park. Run a hospital board election the way the town runs its town board elections. No more excuses. For the love of God, someone, anyone with a shred of decency and basic knowledge of our Constitution or the Golden Rule, step in and keep these children at Estes Park Health and the Estes Park Trail-Gazette from abusing and molesting our American form of democracy.