Colorado's Griswold, Anderson vie for secretary of state

Colorado's Democratic secretary of state, Jena Griswold, who has tangled with a local official charged with allowing unauthorized access to voting equipment, is seeking a second term against Republican Pam Anderson, a former county clerk, in the race to become the state's top elections official.

While some Republicans trying to unseat secretaries of states elsewhere claim the 2020 presidential election was marred by fraud, Anderson believes Colorado's largely vote-by-mail voting process, which she worked to expand, is secure, and she has a lot in common with Griswold when it comes to how elections should be run.

However, Anderson, the former head of the state's clerks association, has accused Griswold of being too partisan, potentially alienating voters at a time when how U.S. elections are conducted are subject to skepticism. Anderson also suggested Griswold's focus on politics has distracted her from overseeing the office.

Griswold is a vocal advocate for voting access and a frequent guest on cable news shows. In an October debate, she said her positions on issues including voting and abortion rights were not partisan but about standing up for fundamental rights.

In 2019, after Alabama passed a restrictive abortion law, Griswold said she would not pay to send employees for training at a national election center there and called on others to boycott the state.

Last year, Griswold worked to block Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk charged with allegedly allowing outsiders to break into her election system, from overseeing elections there. She also went to court to get another clerk, Dallas Schroeder, in Elbert County, to turn over copies of election system hard drives.

Anderson defeated Peters in the Republican primary to challenge Griswold. She supported Griswold's response to Peters but faulted Griswold for using the case in fundraising pitches to her supporters while it was still being investigated.

Griswold criticized Anderson, a nonpartisan municipal clerk in the Denver suburb of Wheat Ridge before being elected Jefferson County clerk, for not denouncing fellow Republicans on the Colorado ballot who have cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election results.

Anderson insisted she has and would continue to speak out against any candidate who spreads election misinformation. She dismissed Griswold's call as too political.

As secretary, Griswold backed legislation to make tampering with election equipment a felony and to increase the number of ballot drop-off boxes and in-person voting centers. She also implemented a program where voters can track their ballots, getting notifications of their status by phone, email or text.

This fall, Griswold's office mistakenly sent postcards to about 30,000 noncitizens encouraging them to register to vote, blaming the error on a database glitch related to the state's list of residents with driver's licenses. Colorado is one of over a dozen states in which noncitizens are able to get driver's licenses. The notices did say people must be U.S. citizens to register to vote.

Anderson was recently featured on the front of Time magazine in a story about elections officials working to protect democracy. As county clerk, she helped pass legislation that required clerks to perform audits of election results.

Anderson promised, if elected, to start a citizen academy to help people understand how elections are conducted and to become involved in the process.