Election denier James Wiley wins Colorado GOP secretary of state nomination

James Wiley, an election denier who has attacked mail-in ballots and voting machines, secured the GOP nomination for secretary of state Tuesday, advancing to November in the race to become Colorado’s top election official.

Wiley’s win gives Colorado Republicans a nominee who has fully embraced the election denial movement and wants to dismantle major parts of one of the country’s most accessible voting systems.

Wiley ran unopposed in the Republican primary. He will face Democrat Amanda Gonzalez in the general election to replace term-limited Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D), who won the Democratic nomination for attorney general. Gonzalez, who currently serves as Jefferson County clerk and recorder, has spent much of her career in roles focused on protecting elections.

The secretary of state oversees Colorado’s elections, including guidance to county clerks, voting rules and statewide election administration. That makes the race especially important in Colorado, a state known nationally for its accessible vote-by-mail system and strong election security measures.

Wiley is running on a sweeping overhaul of Colorado elections. His campaign says he wants “one day,” in-person voting, strict voter ID, paper ballots and hand counts — changes that would sharply restrict voting access in a state where voters have long relied on mail ballots, early voting and secure drop boxes.

Wiley has also leaned heavily into election conspiracy politics. 

His campaign says he has sued Dominion Voting Systems, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Griswold and election officials in multiple states over what he describes as election misconduct. 

Wiley has also been a staunch advocate for freeing former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who became a hero to election deniers after she was convicted in a voting equipment breach tied to false claims about the 2020 election.

Peters was sentenced to prison in 2024 after a jury found her guilty of giving an unauthorized person access to Mesa County’s election system while trying to prove baseless claims about voting machines. Gov. Jared Polis (D) commuted Peters’ sentence earlier this year, allowing her to be released on parole as she continues to spew election denialism.

Wiley’s campaign has also attacked Colorado’s voting equipment, claiming Griswold’s leadership has left the state with “machines that threaten our sovereignty with AI.”

Wiley sued Griswold after a 2024 leak of Colorado voting equipment passwords. 

The Colorado Libertarian Party, then-state chair Hannah Goodman and Wiley — who was the party’s 3rd Congressional District nominee at the time — asked a court to decommission voting equipment and order hand counts in the affected counties. 

Griswold said the leaked passwords had been updated, the affected machines had been verified as secure and the disclosure “did not pose a security threat to Colorado’s elections.” A judge rejected the Libertarian Party’s request to have ballots counted by hand because of the leak, finding no evidence the equipment had been compromised.