David vs. Goliath – an NAACP Faction Faces Off Against Grassroots Canvassers in an Election Case Few Know About

After the 2020 Presidential election, millions upon millions of Americans saw something they’d never seen before.  Counting shut down in the middle of the night in key parts of imperative swing states.  Edison data zeroed out in the middle of the night.  And when we all woke up in the morning, Joe Biden had overcome insurmountable leads in most of those locations, and closed the gap in the others.

Counting would go on for several days, during which time Biden was able to close on differences of just under a million votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin combined.  Arizona flipped blue for the first time since 1996 and just the second time since 1948.

After four days of counting (which continued for much longer in actuality), the Mockingbird Media took to their self-appointed soapboxes to declare Joe Biden the winner.

The unprecedented changes to election laws, often unconstitutionally, led to claims of widespread election fraud as all but two states allowed some form of no-excuse absentee voting by mail.  This motivated grassroots organizations across the country to network at the local level and try to figure out what happened.

Conservative grassroots canvassing movements, as a result, began popping up all over the country.  From Liz Harris’s operation in Maricopa County, Arizona, to AuditTheVotePA in Pennsylvania, conservatives and populists across the country were doing something the Democrats had a monopoly on for decades: community organizing.

In Colorado, through a series of random events, retired US Air Force Colonel Shawn Smith, Holly Kasun, and Ashe Epp would lay the groundwork for what would become the US Election Integrity Plan.  Their mission is to “Connect…Find the Truth…Share the Truth…Restore Election Integrity.”  In doing so, the trio set out with a growing group of fellow citizen volunteers to begin a widescale canvass of several counties in Colorado.

For a grassroots initiative, it was well-organized but, of course, underfunded.  There were no corporations reaching out to fund election integrity the way they do the very organizations that create election vulnerabilities through ‘Get Out the Vote’ campaigns.  There wasn’t PAC money, ACTBlue, or WINRed funding organizations to make sure the election was conducted lawfully and accurately.  News outlets weren’t telling voters to check and make sure their vote was counted and the method was accurately reflected.

They only support the front end of elections.  The ‘glitz and glam.’  The back end is grossly ignored.

Yet the USEIP persisted with a battalion of concerned citizens united to seek the truth.  The group developed a plan by utilizing their own special skills with some help from former corporate trainers and developers.

The goal was to ask non-partisan questions of willing participants.  After determining which areas to canvass based on Secretary of State data, the citizen canvasser began to go door-to-door and ask fellow citizens non-partisan questions, such as “Did you vote in the 2020 election and if so, by what method?  Mail-in ballot? Dropbox? In-person?”  If the resident didn’t want to engage, the canvassers simply said “Thank you” and walked away.

But, of course, they would end up getting sued for this canvass by a faction of one of the most prominent “civil rights” organizations in the country:  the NAACP.

After a lengthy pre-trial effort by counsel representing the Colorado NAACP, League of Women Voters, and Mi Familia Vota to extract a settlement that included a consent decree barring future canvassing by the defendants, the trial began today in the Federal Courthouse in Denver, CO.

The accusation being levied is that the Defendants intimidated voters with their canvass by violating section 11b of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Ku Klux Klan Act.

Opening statements in CO, MT, WY State Area Conference of the NAACP v Shawn Smith et al. began this morning.  After statements from the NAACP counsel, each defendant’s counsel, including Ashe Epp, a firebrand pro se defendant (meaning she is representing herself).  In her open, she stated:

“Canvassing is a long-protected First Amendment activity with a well-litigated history in our great nation.  The courts have repeatedly upheld the People’s right to canvass.  Canvassing is, as the Supreme Court determined in Meyer v. Grant in 1988, “the type of interactive communication concerning political change that is appropriately described as ‘core political speech.’”

In the current matter, Plaintiffs are asking the court to provide injunctive relief that amounts to a content-based restriction on the Defendant’s core political speech.

…I have been the target of vitriol from the left.  I was targeted by Colorado media outlets, many of whom published provable lies about me without ever reaching out for comment.  Local journalists put me on lists.  They fantasized about my whereabouts, published those fantasies, and were later forced to publicly retract their reporting.  They assassinated my character repeatedly and, as a female journalist with a minority political viewpoint in a triple majority state, I have been dehumanized to such an extent that the most well-respected Civil Rights organization in the nation, and possibly the world, feel justified in attempting to separate me from my rights – entirely based on my core political speech…

The internet is forever and, because of Plaintiffs, my name is forever attached to the KKK.

The plaintiffs called two witnesses today:  Colonel Shawn Smith and Ashe Epp.  Col. Smith began by outlining his devoted decades-long service to our country, including some of the secure posts in our military, including an ICMB launch officer and a penetration tester for critical weapons systems.

Col. Smith took a barrage of passive-aggressive questions about his research as a computer-based systems expert into our electronic voting infrastructure.  He said that he was “certain’ that then-CISA director Chris Krebs and DHS’s Chad Wolfe, based on their credentials and the data they had available at the time, participated in a “narrative roll-out” when Krebs stated 2020 was “the most secure election in our history.”

Throughout his testimony, Col. Smith was steadfast in his personal beliefs and professional analysis of vast amounts of data, procedures, and manuals which led him to conclude the 2020 election winner cannot be determined.

Questioning revolved around a “playbook” that was published by Col. Smith and the USEIP after their canvassing had been completed.  The playbook insisted that canvassers be polite, courteous, and professional and respect the voter’s right to refuse to talk to them.  No information was sought that would identify who the voter voted for, but rather simply by what method they voted.

The canvass also would reveal numerous discrepancies with the voter rolls that resulted in voters being registered at storage warehouses, fast-food restaurants, wholesale shopping stores, and vacant lots.

When asked how canvassers could be sure a voter was who they say they were when talking with them, Col. Smith responded that they would fill out affidavits and USEIP would submit them to the attorney general and district attorneys for further investigation.

Counsel then asked passive-aggressively if that meant he wanted someone else to do the investigative work for him.  Col. Smith responded, you mean the sworn elected official responsible for doing so?  Yes. (paraphrased)

Counsel for the NAACP faction would be scolded by the judge as he deviated into unrelated issues to the “voter intimidation” accusation by bringing up Col. Smith attending the January 6th protest in Washington DC.  This would become a recurring theme.

The next witness called was Ashe Epp, the pro se defendant.  Almost immediately, counsel began to question her about her blogging and podcasting from her blog, Ashe In America.  Epp only mentioned USEIP in one of her blog posts, and it was a citation directly from the organization, not herself.

At one point, Epp was asked about calling remarks made about their canvassing by the Executive Director of the CO County Clerks Association, Matt Crane, as “defamatory and libelous.”  Epp explained to the court that the quotes in the article plaintiffs were referring to did not portray the USEIP canvass, but rather another organization.  And another remark calling their canvass efforts and report “amateur” was made by Crane before the report was even released.

Once again, plaintiff counsel began to attempt to paint the Defendants in a negative light because of their attendance at the Jan 6 protest, despite Epp having a degree in journalism and writing independently about the historic day.  No one with USEIP was ever charged for any crimes on Jan 6.

The judge seemed to grow irritated with the counsel for these questions and urged him to tie it into voter intimidation from the canvassing.  She gave him a “short rope.”

An hour later, he was still pulling that rope before the judge finally called a sidebar conversation.  After the sidebar, the Jan 6 questions ceased.

Until, in a last-ditch effort, counsel tried to compare federal authorities visiting Epp’s home with the canvassing.  This was immediately objected to, sustained, and counsel rested and retreated.

Day 2 convenes tomorrow.  Follow @CannConActual on X for live-tweeting and stay tuned for a follow up on The Gateway Pundit.

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