Here’s Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams’ version of spring break: Visited nine county clerks. Checked out five newspaper offices. Attended three Go Code Colorado competitions. Spoke at one Club 20 event.

And all in four days.

Williams began his trip Wednesday morning in Greeley, where he met with Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes. By late afternoon he was in Pagosa Springs, talking to Archuleta County Clerk June Madrid and touring The Pagosa Springs Sun newsroom.

That night, Williams ate dinner in Durango with La Plata County Clerk Tiffany Parker — he visited her office Friday afternoon, too — and by the next morning he was ready to hit the road to talk with three other county clerks.

“Last year I met with all the new county clerks in their offices and this year and I am continuing to go meet with county clerks,” Williams said. “By going to their offices I get a better understanding of their set-ups and their challenges to ensure we are helping meet their needs.”

During the visits, the clerks praised Colorado Secretary of State’s Election Division, particularly Deputy Elections Director Hilary Rudy, for the help they receive. They also said they miss veteran elections official Paula Barnett, who wanted to be closer to her family so she went to work with Chaffee County Clerk Lori Mitchell.

Clerks are among the busiest of county elected officials.  They manage elections. Most handle Motor Vehicle registrations and some handle driver’s licenses. They record documents. Their offices issue marriage licenses and some take minutes of the commissioners’ meetings.

Holding court in Pagosa Springs

June Madrid has served as Archuleta County’s clerk and recorder since 1989 — and she worked nine years in the office in two separate stints before that.

The clerk’s office is located across the street from the Pagosa Springs Sun and on a road that curves in front of the big picture window in the clerk’s office, where the commissioners once were located.

So far, no one has slid off the street and through the window, although visitors sometimes ask.

Williams met Madrid’s new elections director, Kristy Arzu, and toured the elections facility in another part of the Archuleta County Courthouse, a facility that has been in the local news for several years because of a leaky roof, flooding, inadequate space and other issues.

“I was very appreciative of Wayne’s visit,” Madrid said. “It makes you feel part of the team. We’ve had secretaries of state we’ve never even met unless they showed up at conferences.”

Madrid was one of nine clerks Williams visited over a four-day period.

Williams talked to Madrid about Dominion Voting Systems, the vendor he selected for county clerks to purchase equipment from when theirs becomes obsolete.

Williams explained that counties can continue to use their current equipment — and a number want to do so for the 2016 election, including Madrid — but clerks who purchase by 2017 will receive a discount on training and installation costs.

Williams also explained that by going to one vendor, he was able to use the purchasing power of the state to get counties a much better price when buying the equipment.

At the Pagosa Springs Sun, an award-winning weekly with a circulation of about 4,000, owner/publisher/editor Terri House asked about Williams’ decision to go with Dominion.

He was able to tour the printing area, as the paper was being published that Wednesday, hold a reporter’s 4-week-old baby and meet the local school superintendent, Linda Reed, who dropped by because she heard the secretary was going to be there.

Williams also assisted the newspaper in trying to find answers from another state agency for a local story. He texted the department head, and staffers later responded to the Sun.

Visiting small and scenic San Juan County

Between them, San Juan County Clerk Ladonna Jaramillo and Board of Commission Chairman Ernest Kuhlman — who both are unaffifliated — have more than six decades of service to the almost 700 residents of San Juan County.

And it shows when the two are talking because they like to have fun.

Jaramillo told Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams said she doesn’t need an alarm to get up, even on days when she hunts. “My alarm hasn’t been used in years,” she said.

“That’s because you can’t hear,” Kuhlman told her.

Some county clerks take the minutes of the commissioners’ meeting, but Jaramillo said she doesn’t want to because “they would put me to sleep.”

“Everything we do here is important,” Kuhlman countered.

One thing Jaramillo does do is sort of mail between the other San Juan counties: San Juan County, where the county seat is  Aztec, N.M, and San Juan County,  where the county seat is Monticello, Utah.  She said she knows when she’s gotten the wrong mail if she doesn’t recognize the name.

“Everyone knows everybody here,” she said. “Small-town politics is different than large town-politics because of that.”

She even knew the schedule of the editor of the Silverton Standard and said he wouldn’t be available that morning.

Although Jaramillo will have worked in the clerk’s office 25 years as of November she rarely sees a secretary of state. She doesn’t drive much, except for the two blocks from her home to the courthouse.  Her husband drives her if she goes out-of-town.

That’s why she enjoyed Williams coming to see her Thursday, on the first of his three clerk stops that day. He visited nine county clerks in four days.

Driving the Million Dollar Highway in Ouray

When Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams decided to visit Ouray County Clerk Michelle Nauer, he had to make sure it wasn’t on a Friday. The office is closed that day.

When that cost-savings measure was instituted in January 2014, Nauer experienced a 100 percent turnover. She has since made some new hires, but “as you know, the learning curve is huge in the clerk’s office,” Nauer said.

If an excise tax on marijuana raises enough revenue, the clerk’s office might be able to reopen on Fridays after next year.

Nauer has worked in the clerk’s office for 35 years, the last 21 as the elected clerk and recorder. In the summer, she opens her window and put crackers on the windowsill for the deer.

“I love my office,” she said.

She also showed off the elections office, which features a door from the old courthouse jail.

Down the hall from her office in the courthouse is a cardboard cutout of actor John Wayne as he appeared in the movie“True Grit.” One of the scenes in the movie was filmed in the courtroom. Nauer never tires of giving people a tour.

“Look under the seats,” she told Williams. “There’s a place to hang your cowboy hat.”

Nauer battled health issues in 2014 and then her dad became sick last year and died in February. The very day she returned to work, on March 14, her chief deputy’s husband died in an off-duty crash. Sgt. Scott Mills of the Ouray Police Department was riding his motorcycle when he was hit from behind by a truck. Sandy Mills is still on leave from the clerk’s office.

“Personnel,” Nauer said, “is the story of my life.”

She said she appreciated Williams checking out her operation, listening to her concerns and “providing positive feedback.”

“Wayne has been a commissioner and a clerk and he understands what we do. We don’t seem to get many decision-makers in our neck of the woods so this was nice. In fact, we cleaned up and dusted before he came,” she said with a laugh.

Williams also visited with Alan Todd, publisher of the Ouray County Plaindealer. Todd traded the humidity of east Texas with the climate of southwestern Colorado and a stunning mountain view out his office window.

Tourism is now a huge part of Ouray County’s economy — check out the photo on the county’s official website. But it originally was a mining community and at one time boasted more than 30 active mines. The town and county are named for Chief Ouray, a Ute.

A tweet about Williams’ visit drew praise for Ouray:

Heading way out West

When Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams showed up in remote Dove Creek on Friday morning, folks asked him if he was running for office.

Yes, but not until 2018 when he is seeking a second term. Williams arrived in Dove Creek in 2016 to visit Dolores County Clerk LaRita Randolph and her two staffers as part of his effort to visit all county clerks in their offices.

Her office in the Dolores County Courthouse features a huge picture window and a view of the Abajo or Blue Mountains in Utah — the state line is only eight miles west. Visitors frequently comment on the sight, but there’s not much else to praise about the courthouse, which was constructed in 1953, Randolph said.

“It’s old enough to be crappy but not old enough to be cool looking,” she said. “It’s that mid-century yuck.”

Randolph said she appreciated visiting with the secretary, calling their discussion “productive” and “good.”

Randolph was first elected clerk and recorder in 2006, when Williams was serving as an El Paso County commissioner. She was re-elected in 2010, the same year Williams won his race for El Paso county clerk and recorder. And Randolph was re-elected in 2014, when Williams was elected secretary of state. Previously, she worked as a dispatcher for Dolores County.

Williams’ decision to travel to Dove Creek earned him some praise the following day, when he spoke at Club 20’s spring meeting in Grand Junction.

Congressman Scott Tipton, who knows a little something about driving long distances because of the vastness of the 3rd Congressional District, gave Williams a shout out.

And prolific political consultant Dick Wadhams, who has traveled the state plenty, admitted he doesn’t believe he ever made it to Dolores County, the only one of 64 counties he has missed.

It’s a drive.

“The county encompasses 1,064 square miles, mostly high mesas and narrow valleys in the western portion. The eastern portion is high mountains. The elevation in Dolores County ranges from 5,900 feet in Disappointment Valley to 14,046 feet on Mount Wilson,” according to the county website.

“Dolores County, like other counties in Colorado along its border with Utah, is split into two geographically distinct regions, and in fact, under normal travel conditions, it is necessary to leave the county to travel between the two regions,” reads one description.

In fact, in order to get to Rico in the eastern portion of the county, drivers must go through Montezuma or San Miguel counties. Adding to the confusion is that town of Dolores is located not in Dolores County but in Montezuma County north of Cortez.

“We get calls about that all the time,” Randolph said.

Williams also visited the Dove Creek Press, located just south of the courthouse and operated for 33 years by Doug and Linda Funk. By the way, the paper’s for sale.

“I just thought it was interesting that you came and visited and it wasn’t an election year,” Linda Funk said. “Well, it’s an election year but the secretary is not on the ballot.”

She said she’s in agreement with Williams that 24-hour drop boxes where voters can drop their ballots off at any time are a good thing for counties. She’d like to see Dolores County get one. Denver pioneered the use of drop boxes.

To read more posts from Lynn Bartels, visit her official blog at the Colorado Secretary of State website.