Is Colorado's elections chief too political? Jena Griswold fights criticism of Trump-focused partisanship

Threats against Griswold

The most fervent criticism from Colorado Republicans has come since the U.S. Supreme Court early this month overruled the Colorado high court’s December decision to strike Trump from the Republican primary ballot. Griswold wasn’t among the plaintiffs in the case, but she’d filed a brief in support.

On March 4, Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert threatened to pursue a recall campaign against Griswold. Days later, state House Republicans announced an effort to impeach the secretary of state — though it isn’t expected to gain traction, and may not even get a hearing, in the Democratic-supermajority chamber.

Then, on March 14, the Colorado Republican Party filed a complaint with the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, asking it to investigate Griswold for repeatedly calling Trump an insurrectionist when the former president had neither been charged nor convicted of such an offense.

“She has repeatedly lied to and misled the public,” the complainants said in an email issued by the state GOP.

Griswold is unfazed by the criticism.

Two Colorado courts — a Denver district judge in November and the Colorado Supreme Court the following month — determined Trump had engaged in insurrection around the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, she noted.

Griswold said she had received more than 800 threats, including death threats, since a group of Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters filed the ballot challenge lawsuit in September.

“I will not be silenced by Republicans in our legislature trying to score cheap political points — and I’ll never be intimidated by someone like Lauren Boebert,” she said. “I will not allow the extreme right to define standing up for democracy as not doing one’s job — it’s what every single person should be doing.”

Enabling or giving cover to those making false claims about the integrity of an election, she said, is “undemocratic, un-American and unacceptable.”

...continued

swipe to next page