As Colorado voting kicks off, an election denier is seeking to reshape how the state votes

Early voting starts this week across Colorado, where an election denier is running to oversee state elections as voters weigh a Republican-backed attempt to heighten ID requirements for casting a ballot.

Democracy Docket is tracking the top issues, including what Coloradans need to know when casting their ballot and what to look out for this election cycle.

Voters will consider a ballot initiative that, if passed, would require them to write the last four digits of either their Social Security, driver’s license or Real ID numbers on the outside of their mailed ballots. 

If election judges cannot confirm the numbers on mail ballots match information stored in a state voter registration database, voters could be disenfranchised if they do not correct the mismatch in time.

The state’s League of Women Voters branch called the measure “a form of voter suppression.”

Meanwhile, James Wiley, who promoted 2020 presidential-election conspiracies, is the Republican nominee for Colorado’s secretary of state, who leads election administration. Wiley is campaigning on a state elections overhaul that includes limiting mail voting, implementing stricter voter ID rules, ending electronic ballots and periodically purging state voter rolls.

Wiley has also boasted that he sued Dominion Voting Systems, Facebook and election officials in multiple states over disproven claims of election misconduct.

Colorado’s current secretary of state, Jena Griswold (D), has defended Colorado from the Trump administration’s attempts to obtain its voter rolls and vocally opposed threats to deploy immigration agents to the polls. Griswold is the Democratic nominee for Colorado attorney general.

Griswold is also fighting a Republican lawsuit attacking Colorado’s law that allows U.S. citizens living overseas to vote in Colorado based on a parent, legal guardian, spouse, domestic partner or civil union partner’s last residence in the state. The case is currently being litigated, and if Wiley were to replace Griswold, it appears unlikely he would defend that law.

The election comes fewer than six months after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D)’s controversial decision to grant clemency to Tina Peters, a former election official convicted of violating election laws in a bid to overturn the 2020 election. President Donald Trump pressured Polis for months to release Peters, who was released on parole June 1 after Polis’ order. 

Griswold condemned Polis’ decision as a “gross injustice.” Wiley, meanwhile, has long supported Peters’ release.

Wiley’s opponent is Amanda Gonzalez, a county election clerk who has criticized voter ID laws and spent much of her career protecting elections.

Colorado’s early voting period opened Monday in some counties and will open statewide Oct. 19. Voter registration runs through Oct. 26. Voters can find information on polling locations, requesting a ballot and more here.