Elections supervisor fired for comments on Jon Stewart’s TV show, lawsuit in Denver says
A former Denver elections supervisor was fired in retaliation for voicing concerns about threats to poll workers and their safety while appearing on a TV show hosted by Jon Stewart in 2022, according to a new federal lawsuit.
Virginia Chau, a corporate attorney, took time off from her full-time job when she worked eight different elections as a voting service polling center supervisor in Denver from 2018 through 2022, a complaint says.
Now she’s suing the city and county of Denver, Denver’s clerk and recorder Paul López, and Denver’s elections division director R. Todd Davidson. Her lawsuit says López and Davidson fired her, in violation of her freedom of speech.
Chau is fighting for her job back, according to the complaint, which was filed Nov. 4 ahead of Election Day.
Chau’s firing “was clearly designed to punish Ms. Chau for her First Amendment protected speech and to silence her on this matter of both local and national importance,” the complaint says.
Denver officials didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment Nov. 5.
‘We don’t have protections’
When Chau appeared on “The Problem with Jon Stewart” on Oct. 29, 2022, Chau spoke about a lack of protections and training for poll workers.
She was invited to speak in the episode of the comedian’s current affairs series on Apple TV that discussed threats to election workers in the wake of Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of former President Donald Trump breached the U.S. Capitol after he lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, the lawsuit says.
In Chau’s experience as an Asian, Jewish woman, 2020 was a “very difficult” year for her and the elections employees she supervised — as they “experienced unprecedented racism from voters,” according to the lawsuit.
On Stewart’s show, Chau said “It’s hard getting people to want to even participate” in working the polls “because we don’t have protections for poll workers or for elected officials.”
When Stewart asked her how employees are to deal with someone who might unplug a voting machine or arrive armed, Chau responded: “The truth is, there’s no structure, there’s no training for that. You don’t know what to do until things happen.”
A week later, on Nov. 5, 2022, R. Todd Davidson, the director of Denver’s elections division, said he and other election officials “were ‘disappointed’ in (her) comments” on the show,” and “said ‘it was not fair’ for her to make the comments that she did,” the complaint says.
Chau was expressing her personal experiences and wasn’t representing Denver by speaking on the show, the complaint said. Davidson said she was being removed from her position, according to the complaint, which says he offered to demote her to a hotline representative.
When Chau asked if she was being taken out of her position because she could be recognized by someone who saw Stewart’s episode, Davidson told Chau that the city and its officials “did not ‘want people to recognize (her) from the show’,” the complaint says.
Chau refused to be demoted, then was fired, according to the complaint, which says she hasn’t received an offer to return to election work in Denver.
“Through this lawsuit, we hope to raise awareness of the problems confronting volunteer poll workers in this age of divisiveness,” David Lane, who represents Chau in the case, told McClatchy News in an emailed statement on Nov. 5.
“They need all the backup and support they can get from their supervisors and the public for demonstrating their commitment to democracy,” Lane said.
Chau was exercising her free speech as a private citizen when she discussed dangers to poll workers and was illegally retaliated against, according to the complaint.
“Instead of heeding Ms. Chau’s call for more resources and training for election officials facing threats to their personal safety, Defendants decided instead to retaliate against one of their best, and most passionate, election workers,” the complaint says.
With her lawsuit, Chau seeks an unspecified amount in damages and relief — including to be reinstated to her former job and for Denver to establish policies and training to protect poll workers — and demands a jury trial, the complaint shows.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 1:42 PM with the headline "Elections supervisor fired for comments on Jon Stewart’s TV show, lawsuit in Denver says."
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