Mesa County commissioners late Tuesday tapped Republican former Secretary of State Wayne Williams to run county elections on a temporary basis – setting up a clash with Secretary of State Jena Griswold over who has the authority to appoint a “designated election official” to oversee matters while the county’s elected clerk is facing a criminal investigation.

Griswold earlier in the day named Sheila Reiner, the Republican county treasurer and former two-term clerk and recorder, to the role. But Mesa County’s three commissioners say they don’t agree she can do that.

“We feel that that power is retained by the board of county commissioners, not by the secretary of state,” said Commissioner Scott McInnis during the meeting.

“There is an immediate need, in my opinion, an immediate need to counter what the secretary of state is doing,” McInnis added. “Our position is she is out of her lane. This is our territory, not her territory.”

The county’s two other commissioners – both Republicans, like McInnis – Janet Rowland and Cody Davis, agreed, approving a resolution to hire Williams, an attorney and Republican who lost a bid for a second term as the state’s top election official to Griswold, a Democrat, in 2018.

Williams, a former El Paso County commissioner and county clerk, confirmed Wednesday he has accepted the appointment.

The Mesa County commissioners didn’t dispute authority claimed earlier this week by Griswold to strip embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters of her supervisory role over the upcoming November election.

Griswold has pointed to numerous security breaches allegedly involving Peters in recent months that led her to prohibit Mesa County from using Dominion Voting Systems election equipment Griswold says has been compromised.

The county’s Republican district attorney is conducting a criminal investigation into the security breaches, and Colorado Politics reported Tuesday that the FBI has joined the probe.

A spokeswoman for Griswold didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Tuesday, Griswold also named state Rep. Janice Rich, R-Grand Junction, Ouray County Clerk Michelle Nauer – a longtime Republican who changed her registration to unaffiliated – and former Democratic Secretary of State Bernie Buescher to an advisory committee tasked with helping Reiner run the off-year election.

The commissioners’ move was first reported by the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.