Secretary of State Jena Griswold spoke to reporters following former President Donald Trump’s speech at the Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora Friday.

“Our elections are the safest, most secure, and most accessible in the nation today,” Griswold said. Trump traveled to Colorado to push racist conspiracies “and to lie, lie, lie, lie,” she said.

“The lies he told today were intended to divide us and turn us against our neighbors. He denigrated the amazing and vibrant community of Aurora to push a hateful message about immigrants. Coloradans should reject his xenophobic and unfounded claims. The truth is that we are stronger together. The diversity of Aurora and the entire state of Colorado is one of the things that actually makes us great. It should be celebrated, not ridiculed or despised.”

Griswold said she thought Trump lost his train of thought, but one thing was consistent: spreading lies and conspiracy theories to undermine confidence in democracy. 

She pointed out that Trump has threatened to prosecute election officials “fanning flames of intimidation and threats to civil servants” who she said make elections work. She also noted the former president said he would not accept the results of the 2024 election unless he wins.

During Friday’s speech in Aurora, Trump said nothing about election results and processes, focusing almost entirely on immigration problems he says the Biden/Harris administration has caused. In one part of his speech, Trump did point out that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Colorado efforts to kick him off the 2024 ballot in a 9-0 ruling.

Regarding Colorado’s elections, Griswold said the mail ballot system is safe. Mail ballots work because they allow voters to take their time, research candidates and issues, and make decisions. And they are paper, meaning they can’t be hacked, she added. Ballots started being mailed out to voters on Friday.

The state has layers of security in its election system, including signature verification by bipartisan election judges and daily voter list updates. She also noted non-citizens cannot vote.

“It’s because of innovations like ‘vote by mail'” that makes Colorado elections the nation’s gold standard for access and security, she added.

“Colorado elections are ran by Coloradans, our friends and our neighbors united behind the common goal of ensuring our democracy works.” That includes a strict chain of custody of ballots and election equipment.

“The 2020 election was not stolen from Trump. Trump was fired by the American people. He lost. Colorado will have good elections this election cycle, and I look forward to ballots going out today and next week,” she concluded.

Griswold addressed the problems that surfaced after the 2020 election in Mesa and Elbert counties, where she replaced the county clerks for the 2022 election after they admitted illegally copying voting systems’ hard drives. Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was sentenced last week to nine years of incarceration for her role in that incident, resulting in her county’s election system copies falling into the hands of election conspiracy theorists. Elbert County Clerk Dallas Schroeder voluntarily surrendered the illegal copies of his county’s election system hard drives.

Griswold also had to appoint others to oversee election in four other counties, in 2022, including Pueblo County, after the clerk and recorder made multiple errors in both the primary and general election ballots. 

Those three counties all have new county clerks and recorders.

Griswold believes turnout will be be good this year, noting the state had the second highest turnout in the nation in the last presidential election in 2020. Her job is to monitor the variables leading to turnout, most notably access and security. 

She said her office has rolled out millions of dollars in grants to increase access or security, and that the number of drop boxes and voting centers has increased over the last six years. She added she’s increased support to counties and will be traveling around the state to assist where needed. 

“We’ve increasing our security and increasing our access on a consistent basis,” she said. 

Dolores County has already had problems in 2024, where hundreds of voters never got their primary ballots due to the ballots getting lost somewhere between Seattle and Albuquerque while in the custody of the US Postal Service.

“We have been in touch with the United States Postal Service to try to ensure that this does not happen again,” Griswold said. The problem was that the delay in delivery was not reported quickly enough for her office to intervene.

Reportedly, the clerk for Dolores County did not notify her office. “We will not hesitate to add resources where necessary,” she said. “We want all of our counties to succeed, every single county clerk to succeed, and we will be there to make sure that, that the 2024 election is a success just like any other year.”

For this election, Griswold said her office has also contracted with former county clerks to step in as needed. 

She also addressed potential voter intimidation, such as in 2020 when two men dressed in military fatigues filmed people dropping off ballots in Arapahoe County. “We are concerned about anything that would hinder a Coloradan casting a ballot,” she said.

State law has since been changed to make a crime to carry a weapon anywhere close to a dropbox or voting center. “We’re definitely monitoring the entire situation. And if there is any reports of voter intimidation, we will act very quickly.”