With so much disinformation out there, how will you reassure doubters of the integrity of Colorado’s election systems?
The Secretary of State should be a professional who can instill trust through her experience, competence, and proven ethical leadership. The office is not a stepping-stone for politicians seeking the next office. As Secretary, I will increase transparency and institute a Colorado Election Academy so voters can train like an election official to learn about our system. As a professional elections official for nearly 20 years, I have had a hand in writing and advocating for nearly every election reform that increased access to our vote and improved accuracy, transparency and security. As I have done throughout my career and this campaign, I will stand up for the truth and restore confidence with facts and evidence-based elections, not hyper-partisan rhetoric that inflames and polarizes.
What, if anything, should change about Colorado’s election systems?
I am very proud of the work my colleagues and I have done to increase access, security, and transparency for Colorado elections. We need to continue evolving our best practices to increase and restore confidence. As Secretary, I will do that by bringing some best practices I developed, like signature verification audits and voter list maintenance audits, and work with stakeholders and codify them to improve consistency statewide. I will support our county clerks with restoring the broken trust of this administration and redirecting funds to support voters and elections operations, not commercials. I will advocate for innovation and maintaining our ability in Colorado to be on the forefront of innovation and modern elections for voters.
What changes, if any, would you make to business licensing?
I will create stability and increase responsiveness for Colorado businesses and non-profits. I will reduce turnover and restore leadership for the mission-driven team for responsive customer service and tangible stakeholder input. Surveys show that morale has greatly decreased at the agency. I believe it is because the priorities of my opponent are political, rather than service-oriented. As the first stop to starting a business, the Secretary of State needs to empower our state’s entrepreneurs and gig workers to provide a seamless roadmap to incorporating their businesses. That means meeting with small businesses and startups to find what works and what doesn’t and make those changes easier and more intuitive for starting a Colorado business.
How would you protect the office and its employees from the toxic effects of politics?
On day one I will institute a Professional Code of Ethics that represent my record of professionalism, not partisanship. I will not use the resources and platform of the office to elevate my political profile and I will support the staff’s mission of serving Coloradans both in my leadership and in my budget policy. I will not divert funds for political pet projects. I will not fundraise for my campaign during investigations. I will restore the trust by leading as a non-partisan official, and I won’t weaponize the office for partisan agendas. I will increase transparency by publishing guidelines for regulatory penalties, not backroom deliberations. I will never require any staff member to sign a non-disclosure agreement upon separating from service at the Secretary of State.
How would you improve the websites for public information about campaign finance, lobbyists and businesses to increase public access to data?
I will do a usability audit and examination of all public access portals and the accessibility, cost, and complexity of the systems. I will also engage the stakeholder with tangible input on these projects. I am experienced in technical project management and have a record of successfully implementing technology efficiently and in a timely manner.
With so much disinformation out there, how will you reassure doubters of the integrity of Colorado’s election systems?
As Secretary of State, I have worked to increase our election access and security. We increased dropboxes by over 65%, added in-person voting, and led the first-in-the-nation law on insider threats, making it a felony to compromise or allow unauthorized access to Colorado voting systems.
I have also prioritized combatting election disinformation, from making sure Coloradans have correct election information to beating lawsuits based on conspiracies. Colorado’s elections are safe and secure. Voting equipment is tested by bipartisan teams before every election and paper ballots cannot be hacked. As Secretary of State, I established statewide ballot tracking, which increases election transparency by enabling Coloradans to follow their ballot from when it’s mailed to when it is counted.
What, if anything, should change about Colorado’s election systems?
Colorado’s elections are the nation’s gold standard for security and access. As Secretary of State, I have made voting more accessible for all Coloradans, but we must always continue to innovate. In a second term, I will continue to protect the right to vote of every eligible person and increase election access. We hope to further expand Automatic Voter Registration (AVR), which has already registered over 350,000 voters and increased our election security. We are continuing to partner with and listen to the tribes to ensure Native American voters have the access to the ballot box they deserve. Also, we must continue to reform our campaign finance system, to increase transparency and fight corruption.
What changes, if any, would you make to business licensing?
I am proud that Colorado has among the lowest business fees in the country, and an efficient and easy system to register your business. As Secretary of State, I will continue to help Coloradans save money. Thatap why I’ve cut red tape, helped slash the cost of starting a new business to one dollar, modernized business services, and worked to protect small businesses from identity theft.
My office is currently working on legislation to protect businesses from fraud, and cut down on misleading solicitations. We are proud of the work we’ve done to make Colorado one of the easiest states in the country to set up and run your business.
How would you protect the office and its employees from the toxic effects of politics?
The Big Lie has been used to destabilize elections across the country and has made Republican and Democratic election workers the targets of conspiracies and threats. Colorado has not been immune to this. That is why I led new laws that prohibit the open-carry of guns within 100 feet of a drop box or voting center and that make it a crime to retaliate against election workers for doing their jobs. Voters should be able to vote without intimidation and election workers must feel safe doing their job. As Secretary of State, I will continue to stand up for the election workers who are the backbone of our democracy.
How would you improve the websites for public information about campaign finance, lobbyists and businesses to increase public access to data?
As Secretary of State, I have led campaign finance laws to increase disclosure of political spending, ban foreign political spending, require disclaimers, and set up an enforcement system so that the rich and well connected cannot side-step the rules.
Then, this year my office secured funding to modernize the campaign finance disclosure system, which is called TRACER. The new system will combine the lobbyist and campaign finance disclosure systems together so that it is easier to track the influence of money in Colorado politics. As Secretary of State, I am dedicated to increasing campaign finance and lobbyist transparency, and cracking down on secret political spending.
With so much disinformation out there, how will you reassure doubters of the integrity of Colorado’s election systems?
Colorado elections are generally conducted in a professional, reliable and secure manner.
The real issue is that we are stuck with an archaic winner take all election system that was designed in secret by a handful of wealthy white men, predominantly slaveholders, who sought to preserve their own wealth and power. Initially, 94% of the population was excluded from representation.
Most districts are dominated by a single party.
Modern proportional representation voting methods would ensure that everyone has fair representation in a multi-party government, not just the majority or plurality from single-member districts.
What, if anything, should change about Colorado’s election systems?
Colorado should use proportional representation voting methods to elect state legislators, U.S. Representatives, boards, councils, and commissions.
A hybrid open party list system of proportional representation with a 3% minimum threshold for state legislature elections would enable 98% of the voters to elect representatives of their choice.
I support a major reduction in petition signature requirements for political candidates and citizen initiatives. Candidates should have the option of paying a nominal filing fee as an alternative to petitioning.
What changes, if any, would you make to business licensing?
How would you protect the office and its employees from the toxic effects of politics?
How would you improve the websites for public information about campaign finance, lobbyists and businesses to increase public access to data?
I would include a voter education guide on the Secretary of State’s website with free candidate statements from candidates who qualify for the ballot for state and federal offices, along with links to state and federal candidate campaign websites from a directory of ballot certified candidates.
With so much disinformation out there, how will you reassure doubters of the integrity of Colorado’s election systems?
I will strive to make the entire election process as transparent as possible; solicit input from political parties as well as the general public on how to address their concerns regarding election integrity; give tours of election facilities; encourage parties and candidates to supply election observers, etc.
What, if anything, should change about Colorado’s election systems?
Based on my experience as an election judge in two large Colorado voting centers, experience as an observer in the counting area of a Larimer County-run and a Fort Collins city-run election, experience taking a tour of the Arapahoe Election Facility (highly recommended!), and discussions with various elections officials, I think the elections I’ve seen or been involved in were well-run and delivered accurate results.
However, there are some things that could be done better. For example, not all parts of counting activity are visible to observers. Video monitoring and recording of all areas could help with that. Certain key steps such as recording and verifying seals on ballot boxes and voting machines could be recorded with close-up video.
What changes, if any, would you make to business licensing?
Candidate did not offer a responsive answer.
How would you protect the office and its employees from the toxic effects of politics?
Candidate did not offer a responsive answer.
How would you improve the websites for public information about campaign finance, lobbyists and businesses to increase public access to data?
Candidate did not offer a responsive answer.
With so much disinformation out there, how will you reassure doubters of the integrity of Colorado’s election systems?
Election integrity requires engagement from the citizens. Our system was designed with checks and balances, which only work when citizens get involved in the election process.
What, if anything, should change about Colorado’s election systems?
Continue the effort to clean the voter registration lists. Engage the public to get involved with the election process.
What changes, if any, would you make to business licensing?
Make forms easier to access and understand for small business owners. Start a system of reminder notification prior to filing dates.
How would you protect the office and its employees from the toxic effects of politics?
I bring a unique perspective being outside the two-party system. I don’t believe this office needs to be involved in the back and forth of politics. The job is to ensure clean secure elections. Provide an easy to follow, customer friendly filing process for businesses, lotteries, bingo, notaries, political candidates and petition initiatives.
How would you improve the websites for public information about campaign finance, lobbyists and businesses to increase public access to data?
I would review the website for broken links and circular connections. A little bit of reorganization will go a long way.
With so much disinformation out there, how will you reassure doubters of the integrity of Colorado’s election systems?
I cannot. Aside from the issue of choiceless elections mentioned below, I have had no access to any of the evidence, have only second and third-hand information about operating system logs recording external access of what should have been secure computers, and therefore, myself, have no material usable in court, with which to make such evaluations. I do think the notion that a recount, consisting of running the same input data through the same machines, loaded with the same program code, could possibly reveal any differences indicating tampering, is totally unreasonable.
What, if anything, should change about Colorado’s election systems?
In 2021, my ballot had two “races.” Each offered the voter the choice of voting for the predetermined “candidate” or having no say whatever in that “race.” No blank, text box, or other way to cast a write-in vote was provided. The “election” was 100% foreordained before the first ballot got into the hands of a single voter.
Such “elections” make a cruel joke of government by consent of the governed. Not on my watch!
What changes, if any, would you make to business licensing?
I would review the current practices, and then make sure that the plain English provisions of the Constitution of the United States, and of the Constitution of Colorado are conformed to. For example, I will not issue, nor fail to issue, nor revoke any business license for reasons contrary to Section 4 of Colorado’s Bill of Rights: “… no person shall be denied any civil or political right, privilege, or capacity, on account of his opinions concerning religion, … Nor shall any preference be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship.
How would you protect the office and its employees from the toxic effects of politics?
I am an IT geek. My career has been more than four decades of designing, developing, building, coding, testing, implementing, and maintaining information systems that work for all users. I do have basic listening and leadership skills, enough to create a work culture where it is safe to risk putting one’s hand up and saying, “I’ve got a mess here”…or even more risky, “It looks like you’ve made a mess here, boss” — and then focus on cleaning up messes, and setting up preventive measures, rather than finger-pointing, fixing blame, and demanding punishments as lawyers do.
How would you improve the websites for public information about campaign finance, lobbyists and businesses to increase public access to data?
My arch-rival, Ms. Griswold, has made some significant progress in the human-friendliness of the TRACER application, for example, since the days of Wayne Williams. And yet there is always further to go. I would certainly restructure the reporting function to make it easier for journalists to gather contact information on the wider variety of candidates, both active and inactive, instead of having to set up the same filter parameters over and over and over again.
