From Secretary of State Wayne Williams

THE PROWERS JOURNAL

People who write letters to the editor are certainly entitled to their opinion, but they are not entitled to make up facts.

That’s what Susan Crites of Lamar did in a letter addressed to her “Prowers County neighbors” that appeared Oct. 15.

She wrote that I was “one of only THREE Secretaries of State nationwide” who provided voting data requested by a White House commission. In fact, four months after the 2017 request, the Associated Press contributed to an article that said 15 states had refused to hand over voter data to President Trump’s commission. Fifteen. That’s not 47. And by the way, in some of those states it is illegal to provide that information.

In Colorado, voter information that is public can be purchased by candidates, political parties, the media and others. That is the information our office sent to the commission. The last thing you want is a secretary of state who refuses to give voter lists to those in another party.

As for my “moonlighting,” when I ran in 2014 for the $68,500-a-year-job as secretary of state, I announced I was going to still practice employment law on the side because I had four kids in college. And do you know what the public did? It elected me secretary of state.

On Monday, I commuted from my home in Colorado Springs to the CBS studio in Denver where I arrived at 6:15 a.m. to talk about ballots going out that day. I was in meetings all day and finished up an interview with Colorado Public Radio at 4:45 p.m.

Colorado is getting its money worth from me. That’s why in my re-election effort I have received endorsements from Democrats, including two of your neighbors, Bent County Clerk Patti Nickell and Otero County Clerk Sharon Sisnroy.

Thank you for reading this.

Secretary of State Wayne Williams