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10 31 24 Colo State Rep Ty Winter on voting system passwords published in error
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There's been calls, I mean, even Kyle Clark out of the media in Denver, who's called for her resignation. Sir, there's been misstep after misstep, and what's unfortunate about this, when you're in leadership, which I am, and which Secretary of State Griswold's in, you've got to take responsibility for the things that happen, and it seems like every time something bad happens out of that office, you blame the junior staffer or somebody down the chain of command. And that's just not right. Sir, the people of Colorado deserve better than what Secretary of State Griswold has provided to this point. If time for her to take responsibility for her actions and step down, we must start working together to ensure that the integrity and security of our elections is solid. And this is not a partisan issue. This is a bipartisan issue. People on all sides of the aisle want to know that their elections are secure, safe, and transparent. Representative Winter, Secretary of State Griswold has already said that she will not resign. In fact, we will have her on later on this morning and about an hour. Don't want you to have to do our job here, but is there anything you would like us to ask her on your behalf? You know, not really. I mean, the questions have been asked. I mean, the people have spoke. The people have asked. At this point, we have faith in our county clerks. We know that they are going to do the job. They're going to oversee the counting of votes, and they're the backbone of our electoral process. They operate with integrity, but Secretary of State Griswold's actions have jeopardized public trust in the overall election system. I've received over 60 text messages from constituents asking what's going on with the election system, and they just want to make sure that it's safe and it's secure. She said it's the gold standard, but once again, you know, she sent out 30,000 postcards asking non-citizens to vote a couple of years ago, and this missed it, it happens, and they just keep happening. So, you know, the question is, is who that I would like you to ask her is, when is she going to start taking responsibility for these things, and when is she going to start and stop making excuses? That's the question that I would like you to ask her and quit putting it off on her staff, because at the end of the day, she's the boss, she's the leader. Representative Winter, I kind of see this in two veins. Two things can be true. The Secretary of State, admittedly, for sure has had some real gaffs on her watch while overseeing some of our elections, but don't some leaders feed and feed into the paranoid and extremely rare issue and realities of voter fraud, such as non-citizens voting? Isn't that a black hole, Representative Winter, that will never get filled no matter the efforts and initiatives transparency taken to show our elections are safe and secure? Shouldn't leaders say, "Yeah, we can set this aside, and our Secretary of State has really messed up in these things," but in the main, our elections are this. No, that's a black hole that doesn't ever seem like we'll ever get filled. You know, I do think it will get filled. You know, the thing that I don't understand, sir, is like having a national voter ID law. I mean, we have to have a driver's license through about anything in this country other than vote. And we all know as an American, that's our golden ticket. We happen to live in the most beautiful, prosperous country that gives you the greatest opportunity in the one thing that we have as American citizens is our vote. And that's what makes us America. And people just want to know that safe and secure. And having a national voter ID is not wrong. We've seen cases all over the country. We've just seen the Supreme Court overrule the case in Virginia that we're going to allow people that were non-citizens on the voter rolls, which that's a federal crime. So perfect example, we just talked about 30,000 postcards by the Secretary of State was sent out to non-citizens in this state of Colorado. So you know, sir, you can say it's a black hole, but the 30,000 postcards that were sent out a year and a half ago, they must have fell in the black hole because that's exactly what's happening. Looking at the partial password leak we saw, do you believe voters need to worry about the safety and security of our election results? You know, I think what they need to worry about is the transparency. First and foremost, from what I understand, the passwords were never changed. And secondly, from another thing that I understand, and like I said, this is new and developing. So things could change. The courts weren't even made aware about it by the Secretary of State. It was broke by somebody else before she even came out and said that there was a problem. So as this thing progresses on, of course, there's going to be tons more information coming out. As we come down to with just a few days left to election, this gets people to wonder. And I mean, you can't blame them for wondering, you know, there is a lot of talk about election fraud. And to be honest with you, it's been on both sides. I can remember in 2016 when Hillary Clinton come out and said President Trump did not win the election. He cheated. It was stolen. We can look back to, I mean, the hanging chads. There has been questions about elections for quite a few cycles now. And I think the pin it on one party or the other is wrong. That's why I say it shouldn't be a partisan issue, making sure that elections are safe and secure and transparent should be a bipartisan issue. It should be an American issue. I thinking taking one side or the other as conspiracy theorists or going down the black hole is, I would say unfair, especially when you look at the history of elections, especially probably in the last four or five presidential elections, both sides have called for transparency. Both sides have called for safe and fair elections. And I think that that gets lost sometimes in the excitement, especially over the last election cycle. Well, if the Secretary of State did step down, is there somebody you want to see replaced? And do you think that makes the problem that we're talking about? Does it make it immediately go away? Gets to that black hole question. Do you think changing the leadership changes how people feel if they still, whatever side of the aisle go down that conspiracy route thinking that votes are changed, non-citizen votes and the like? First and foremost, I'd like to say, you know, I never mentioned anything about changing your votes, but I do think it has to come down the responsibility of leadership. And I think that there's something about leaning into an issue. Will she step down? No, she's not going to step down. At that point, it would be put in by vacancy committee if she did step down. So the voted voters wouldn't really be able to decide until the next cycle when that office would be up. That's how it would work. I'm a I'm a we the people first and so I believe in the United States Constitution. I believe we're governed by the people. I ran to be a representative because I believe in representative government. And we will see. We know Jenna won't step down and then the people will speak at the ballot box again in the next election cycle when we try to elect another secretary of state in the state of Colorado. Representative Winter and wrapping up with you, have you been able to speak with your Democratic colleagues on this in the letter that you also penned with Rose Piguisie? And what has their response been to all this? I'm actually what we're going to start reaching out today with all of this breaking yesterday. As you all know, we're an election season. Minority leaders are too easy and I have been knocking doors, making phone calls, fundraising. And then this comes in the middle of the last push in the last five days trying to get candidates over the finish line. And with juggling all these balls, you all understand how that is business, family life, kids. I'm trying to make it all come together. And with the breaking news just happening night before last I didn't see it until it was on Kyle Clark. And then we hit the ground running yesterday morning trying to come to resolutions and try to resolve this problem as well as let our constituents that have reached out to us in math saying, what are you going to do? Would you please look into this for us? You know, I think that we're going to start reaching out to our colleagues because like I said, and I'll say this over and over again, voter integrity, election integrity. That is not a partisan issue. It's bipartisan. So we will be reaching out to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle and making sure that we can look into this further. That way, the citizens of Colorado have faith that people on both sides of the aisle want to make sure that they have fair and free elections with open transparency. Assistant House Republican Morning Minority Leader, it's Ty Winter. Thanks so much. Thank you. I appreciate you both. Have a good day and God bless America. 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