A man who once ran for sheriff in Archuleta County has been charged with arson after he allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail into the Archuleta County Clerk’s Office last month.
This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
William Wayne Bryant, 71, appears to have targeted the room where the county’s Dominion Voting Systems machines are stored. There are indications Bryant subscribes to conspiracy theories that Dominion equipment has been used to steal elections, authorities said.
The incident occurred in the early hours of June 12. According to an arrest affidavit, security video recorded a man throwing an incendiary device through a side window before running away. The bomb caused a fire that engulfed parts of the office.
Soot, fire and water damage have forced the clerk’s office to remain closed since the incident.
Pagosa Springs police arrested Bryant on June 25 and charged him with first-degree arson, a Class 4 felony, and possession of an explosive or incendiary device, a Class 5 felony. He is currently out on bail.
According to the arrest affidavit, Bryant spoke publicly about wanting the county to get rid of its Dominion Voting Systems machines. The Denver-based company has been at the center of false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump.
Bryant has also expressed anti-government views, posting on social media that taxation is extortion, according to officials.
Minutes from an Aug. 2, 2022, county commission meeting, quoted in the arrest affidavit, note that Bryant “expressed his continued dissatisfaction with the Dominion Voting machines.”
Aftermath of the Archuleta County Clerk’s Office attack. (Handout)During another commission meeting earlier that year, Bryant said he’d recently been introduced to the film “2,000 Mules.” The documentary, which has been widely discredited, purports to show evidence of a vast conspiracy by Democrats to steal the 2020 election.
The meeting minutes note, “he believed the show brought to light a lot of information regarding voter fraud. He stated he believed the Board of County Commissioners should make the decision to require the Clerk & Recorder to go back to a hand count and not utilize Dominion equipment.”
Archuleta County’s clerk and recorder, Republican Kristy Archuleta, said she’s familiar with Bryant because he ran for sheriff in 2022 as an unaffiliated candidate, getting 16% of the vote in a three-way race. The clerk believes Bryant has continued to stew over his loss.
“It’s kind of scary that it’s taken that long for him to do something like this,” Archuleta told CPR News. “We all have everyday frustrations. But how you react to them says a whole lot more about a person.”
The attack has displaced nearly 30 county staff, forcing the closure of both the assessor’s office and the clerk and recorder’s office. Archuleta County’s staff is currently working out of a conference room in a different location.
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Until the offices reopen, the county’s 13,000 residents can’t do things like in-person vehicle registration, which is one of the main responsibilities of the clerk’s office.
Archuleta County said Dominion plans to send replacement machines once her staff moves into a more permanent location and reopens to the public. The destroyed equipment was covered by insurance.
“We just keep plugging along and doing our job exactly the way we’re supposed to. And it’s unfortunate that people think that we’re not doing the job according to law, but I mean, we all do. So it’s just frustrating that people think that,” said Archuleta. She added that she’s thankful no one was hurt in the attack.
Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the language of election deniers is inflammatory and dangerous and has helped to normalize political threats.
“An attack against an election office is really unthinkable prior to 2020. And these attacks, we have to understand, are in a larger context where election workers feel under threat, they feel scared,” she said.
Griswold noted that it’s not the first time anti-Dominion extremism has had real world consequences in Colorado, and referred to the case of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is serving time in state prison for allowing an unauthorized person into her voting machine system update, and to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who a jury recently found defamed a former Dominion Voting Systems executive.
“The fact that an election office in Colorado was firebombed with a Molotov cocktail is shocking and appalling,” said Griswold. “With that said, we have seen a huge uptick in threats since Trump pushed out his big lie.”
Matt Crane, the head of the Colorado County Clerks Association, called the whole situation disgusting.
“Most election officials do this because they believe in civic duty, they believe in the role of elections in the fabric of America. It’s one of our most cherished rights, and it’s an honor for election officials to do this work.”
Crane said good men and women are leaving the field because they don’t want their lives threatened.
“Election officials now are wondering, why do I still do this if my office is going to get firebombed by a Molotov cocktail?” he said.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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