Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Thursday laid out her policy priorities – including cracking down on secret political spending – in a visit to the state Capitol and the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.

Griswold began by lauding the work of her predecessors and other public servants in making Colorado what many contend is one of the safest places in the nation to cast a ballot.

“That every registered voter in Colorado receives a ballot in their mailbox shines in stark contrast to the voter suppression we see across the nation in places like Georgia, Florida and North Dakota,” Griswold said.

“The fact that Coloradans can register to vote in person, online and on Election Day removes barriers to participation that too many of our fellow citizens confront. And Colorado holds the distinction of being one of the safest and most secure states to cast a ballot in the nation.”

But the state can do better, she said, particularly for people who are unable to visit driver’s license offices to register to vote, such as those with those with disabilities, low-income Coloradans and the elderly. Griswold suggested expanding voter registration to other state agencies, although she did not suggest which ones. 

Griswold also suggested using data to cut down on the time people spend in voter lines on Election Day, and expanding voting opportunities. The later includes opening voting service centers on the Sunday prior to Election Day, expanding voting hours and requiring voting service centers on college campuses. 

For her third policy priority — campaign finance — Griswold offered the most specifics. The state is awash with massive secret political spending, she said.

“We must bring transparency to the millions and millions of dollars used to influence our elections,” she said. “Now is our time to act to increase disclosure requirements of secret political spending. Now is our time to act to close coordination loopholes. And we must act now to enforce our campaign finance laws.”

Griswold pointed to states like Washington and Montana, considered one of the toughest campaign finance transparency states in the nation, as examples to follow.

“Corporations and special interests should follow the same set of disclosure rules that candidates already do,” she told the committee. “In Colorado, we do a better job of tracking a $50 contribution to a candidate than we do tracking a $50,000 contribution to an independent expenditure committee, which is the Colorado version of a super PAC.”

And at a time when “foreign actors may be funneling money through nonprofits that then engage in political activity, we must do more to protect the integrity of our elections,” she added.

Griswold proposed requiring disclosure of secret political spending, expanding the “paid for by” disclosure requirements on political advertisements, and exercising the secretary of state’s audit and enforcement power to act on campaign finance, ballot access, and lobbyist violations.

Griswold also suggested that potential candidates should be blocked from “raising millions of dollars in unchecked and uncapped contributions into ‘independent’ committees designed to support them when they officially declare their candidacy,” a direct slap at former Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton, for whom an independent expenditure committee — Better Colorado Now — advocated for his candidacy before he declared he was running for governor.

 Independent expenditure committees can raise unlimited amounts of money as opposed to candidate committees, which, for governor, are limited to contributions of $1,150 per person per election cycle.

Up until the point that Stapleton declared for governor, there was nothing in state law that would prohibit him working with the IEC, including fundraising.  

As to campaign finance enforcement, Griswold said she would ensure that independent expenditure and other committees are held accountable for campaign finance violations, and hinted she would use audits and other investigative tools. As of December, the state was owed more than $2.3 million in campaign finance violations, The Colorado Sun reported.

Democratic Rep. Jovan Melton of Aurora applauded Griswold’s idea of opening up voting on Sundays but questioned whether the secretary of state could do so without additional appropriations. About 5 percent of Coloradans visit the ballot box on Election Day, Griswold said, adding that her office will look at where the most traffic takes place and “come to a conclusion that will not require an increase to the budget.”

Griswold also was asked about what she could do to improve lobbyist transparency. Under the current system, a lobbyist has to report on the secretary of state’s website which bills he or she is working on and for whom. But that system falls short with the mad influx of bills in the last month of the legislative session, according to Democratic Rep. Susan Lontine of Denver.

“It doesn’t help with the confusion on who is lobbying on what,” Lontine said. “I’d love to see a more real-time registry.”

Griswold said her office is working to streamline reporting and that it will work to update those systems. That includes incorporating TRACER, the state’s campaign finance system, with the lobbyist registry, she said.

Committee Chair Chris Kennedy of Lakewood asked what preparations Griswold is taking for the presidential primary in 2020, and if the Legislature will need to help.

Judd Choate, the elections director, replied that the election system was tested in 2018, when unaffiliated voters were first allowed to vote in the primary. Much of the information gained last year will apply in 2020, he explained.

“We anticipate those strategies from 2018 will work well in 2020.”