Colorado Politics

National election reform group endorses Jena Griswold’s re-election bid

A Democratic-aligned group devoted to campaign finance and election reform endorsed Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold for a second term on Tuesday, saying the Democrat has kept voting rights and election integrity at the center of her agenda.

The endorsement from the joint End Citizens United/Let America Vote organization kicks off a national campaign to elect secretary of state and attorney general candidates in what a spokesman described as key races. The group plans to spend $7 million supporting the candidates it’s endorsing for the two offices in nine states, including in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, which were all top battlegrounds in last year’s presidential election.

“Secretary Jena Griswold has fought hard time and time again to defend the right to vote for the people of Colorado. She has expanded voting rights, cracked down on dark money and pushed back on politicians promoting the Big Lie,” said Tiffany Muller, president of the organization formed last year when the two groups merged.

“Secretary Griswold’s expansion of ballot access is the reason Colorado had the second-highest voter turnout of any state in the country. Her leadership proves that when a state expands voting rights, more people vote. We are proud to endorse her for reelection.”

Griswold, the first Democrat elected secretary of state in Colorado in nearly 60 years, drove legislation to increase the number of ballot boxes and polling places in Colorado ahead of last year’s election and was among officials in several states who sued the Postal Service, charging that changes in mail delivery threatened to undermine the November election.

Griswold said in a statement that she ran for the post “because of my passion for voting rights and fighting corruption, and that commitment informs everything I do in office.” As secretary of state, she said she “protected our right to vote, expanded voter access and ensured that all eligible voters, regardless of party, could have their voices heard in secure and accessible elections.”

Griswold, who heads the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, has yet to draw a Republican opponent, but Republicans and GOP-aligned groups have recently been attacking her for throwing support behind sweeping federal legislation to reform how elections are conducted across the country.

End Citizens United and Let America Vote count more than 4 million members nationwide, with more than 160,000 in Colorado, a spokesman said. Earlier this year, the group’s political action committee endorsed U.S. Rep. Michael Bennet and U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, two Colorado Democrats running for re-election in 2022.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold at the Colorado Politics Legislative Launch Party, held Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020, at the Brown Palace Hotel un Denver.
Photo by Andy Colwell for Colorado Politics
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