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Amanda Gonzalez Democrat
Residence: Arvada
Profession: Election Official
Education: Law Degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law
Experience: Amanda Gonzalez is an election attorney who currently serves as the Clerk and Recorder in Jefferson County and runs elections for nearly half a million voters.
What are your top three priorities, if elected?
My top three priorities are protecting Colorado’s elections from federal overreach and political interference; expanding access to the ballot so every eligible voter can participate; and modernizing the Secretary of State’s office to better serve Coloradans. That means defending our secure mail ballot system, supporting and protecting local election workers, expanding language and disability access, and ensuring voters have accurate information. It also means improving business services and campaign finance transparency so the office works efficiently, fairly, and transparently for everyone who relies on it.
What, if anything, should Colorado change about its election systems? What specific actions would you take to improve the public’s confidence in our elections?
Colorado has one of the strongest election systems in the country, but we should never stop improving it. I would strengthen training and resources for local election officials, continue improving cybersecurity and physical security, expand language and disability access, and protect our successful mail ballot system from federal interference.
Public confidence is earned through transparency, not slogans. I would make election processes easier for the public to understand, proactively combat misinformation with accurate information, and ensure election officials have the tools to answer questions quickly. I’ve run elections for nearly half a million voters, and I know the best defense of our democracy is elections that are secure, transparent, accessible, and competently administered.
How would you improve public access to information about campaign finance, lobbying and businesses?
Transparency only works if information is actually accessible. As Secretary of State, I would modernize Colorado’s campaign finance system so voters can more easily see who is spending money to influence our elections, strengthen enforcement of disclosure laws, and make lobbying information easier to search and understand. I would also improve Colorado’s business filing system so entrepreneurs and consumers can quickly find accurate information and complete transactions without unnecessary barriers. Having led both a government office and a small business, I know these systems should be designed around the people who actually use them—not government bureaucracy.
Sean Vadney Libertarian Party
Residence: Highlands Ranch
Profession: Entertainment and hospitality
Education: Southern New Hampshire University
Experience:
What are your top three priorities, if elected?
Securing our elections, making business registration cheaper and more straightforward, and ensuring polling accessibility for voters with disabilities.
What, if anything, should Colorado change about its election systems? What specific actions would you take to improve the public’s confidence in our elections?
I would roll back the mail-in voting system, with exceptions for those with disabilities that make in-person voting difficult. The mail-in system has too many problems and can easily facilitate fraud or error; I believe Colorado voters would feel more secure knowing that in-person voting with strenuous security measures is the primary method of voting in this state.
How would you improve public access to information about campaign finance, lobbying and businesses?
Colorado should make campaign finance information easier for ordinary voters to find and understand. I would support modernizing disclosure systems so contributions, expenditures, major donors, and independent spending can be searched and reviewed through a straightforward public interface.
Celeste Landry Forward Party
Residence: Boulder
Profession: nonpartisan volunteer lobbyist and administrator (on leave)
Education: Master’s degree – Operations Research; Bachelor’s – Math; certification – American Production and Inventory Control
Experience: Lobbyist: election bills, rulemaking hearings, Title Board
Expert: voting methods, election audits
Manufacturing Scheduler
Teacher: math, ESL
Personally met / know most CO county clerks
What are your top three priorities, if elected?
1. Protect your right to vote in ALL elections in the face of national threats, in SPECIAL elections to fill county commissioner and legislative seats, and in MUNICIPAL elections when you cannot return a paper ballot by Election Day.
2. Write rules for proportional ranked voting (as a 2008 statute requires) and for simple-to-implement approval voting; Colorado cities are asking for these rules.
3. Ensure that electronic voting from home is restricted to those who need it – voters with certain disabilities, such as blindness, or voters who, for reasons beyond their control, cannot return a paper ballot by the deadline.
What, if anything, should Colorado change about its election systems? What specific actions would you take to improve the public’s confidence in our elections?
In general, we can be proud of Colorado’s system; it is excellent at balancing access to voting with election security. We can immediately implement solutions to two known security loopholes and collaborate to solve other issues. We should work for more consistency across all elections to reduce confusion and misinformation and to improve public confidence. Municipal clerks and county clerks currently conduct elections under different, sometimes conflicting, laws. Also, Colorado’s recent law for filling county commissioner vacancies has a new (unconstitutional) system for counties with 50,000 active voters and an older system for less populous counties.
How would you improve public access to information about campaign finance, lobbying and businesses?
I would listen closely to the entities, e.g., Capitol Commons and the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, that work to improve public access to such information; they have good ideas. I would create a working group consisting of these external entities and staff from the Department of State’s campaign finance, business and IT sections. Open communication and collaboration would be hallmarks of my administration; I would welcome recommendations for improvement from this working group.
James Wiley and Amanda Campbell did not return the questionnaire.
