Candidate Interview: James Wiley — CO Secretary of State

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• Transcript

  My name is James Wiley I’m running for Colorado Secretary of State. I believe that over the course of the last several decades, particularly the last decade, the trust in the elections has significantly, and that has led to a lot of division within our country, with both sides accusing the other of cheating back and forth cycle after cycle. And ultimately, that’s a result of the methods that we’re using for our elections. What we’re using in person, one day voter ID paper ballot hand counts, or in many cases, not. So that’s that’s the true gold standard that we should be working towards. And I’ve been advocating for that the last six years, and I’m excited to take that advocacy out of just the courtrooms and now into the secretary of State’s office. I’ve been suing Jena Griswold and other actors who have violated the law in the conduct, conduct of the elections. And so I’m I’m really excited to be able to bring some accountability there by being secretary of state. Four years ago, I was involved with the Colorado Recount Coalition. I developed a website. I produced the marketing. I really brought the candidates together for that legal action and supported the legal effort itself. But along that pathway, what I found was I was too eager to bring in people who were at least saying that they were supportive of the cause, which ultimately resulted in too many cooks in the kitchen. I’ve learned that you need to put the right people in the right place on the bus, and maybe even too many people on the bus is not a good thing. So I’ve learned a lot about leadership through that project and other projects that I’ve worked on since, forming coalitions and bringing people together for the purpose of liberty in Colorado and justice. And so I’m going to continue that work. I’ve learned a lot in my campaign applying those principles, and I look forward to improving the leadership environment, management environment as well. In the Secretary of State’s office, applying my education, my marketing and MBA as well. One policy I would undo is the law passed in 2022, related to essentially the clerks and the options that they have for tabulation, whether they can use hand counts or whether they’re bound to only do machine. Before 2022, clerks were allowed to opt into a hand count and do hand counts within their own counties. At 2022, it went from May to shall. The law was changed, and I think that ties the hands of the Clarkson restricts their ability to represent their constituents the best way possible. So that’s one law that I would like to see change. One policy in Colorado that I would definitely like to to continue to support is the the work that Judicial Watch has done in Colorado to clean up the voter rolls. And so the courts in Colorado, the federal courts have done great work with instructing the Secretary of State to clean up the voter rolls. And I appreciate that policy. I think that’s a policy that we should continue to advance, and a law that requires that which the federal court is requiring be enforced. I think more attention to that would avoid further litigation, and I appreciate that it has taken place to clean up the voter rolls, but it shouldn’t be necessary to sue the Secretary of State or any election official in order to just get them to follow the law. The Secretary of State’s office. Unfortunately, while it deals with every single business in the state, it doesn’t regulate them directly, like the governor’s office and the appointments that the governor would make from that position. But the Secretary of State can make life a little bit easier for Coloradans. I think businesses and the operation of businesses in Colorado is one of the greatest areas that’s under threat right now in 30,000 businesses left the state of Colorado last year. And so it moving forward beyond this year. We need to ensure that we’re supporting businesses, make life easier for them. I want to bring in automatic renewal and business registration from the Secretary of State’s office. That’s just one small thing I could do to make their lives easier and help them stay in Colorado and keep making life more affordable for every Coloradans through that business competition. The number one role that I want to take as Secretary of State is a leader in decentralization. As a libertarian, I believe that all aspect of government should be as decentralized as possible. And so I want to enact that as secretary of state as well, with the clerks supporting them as opposed to controlling them. Jena Griswold, in her term has been kind of a nanny trying to trying to parent the clerks, tell them what to do, hold their hand and really restrict what’s going on on the local level. I should be there when clerks need help, but otherwise get out of their way. And so that’s one of my main goals and directives, whether advocating for legislation to lift some of the restrictions on the clerks or working my office, roll back the rules that have tied their hands, that’s going to be my main focus. What I’m proposing is difficult, but it should be widely and will be widely popular and actually almost free. So. So the expense reduces significantly when you introduce hand counts, reintroduce hand counts, restore that as the the standard here in Colorado. It’s not easy because why you have to do the work. You have to be not a lazy population in order to accomplish account, or at least 1% of the population needs to not be lazy. That’s all that’s required to actually conduct a hand count. Again, it’ll be extremely affordable because these will be volunteers who are performing those counts. And it’s it’s something that can be introduced over time. Again, not top down from the Secretary of State’s office ordering clerks what to do, but the small clerks and the small counties with low populations might be the first ones to adopt hand counting. Once again, to save on cost and to restore trust to their citizens. And and there’s no reason why the larger counties wouldn’t follow that process as well. Public understanding of the elections is that the key element, having elections that people trust and understand how they’re conducted, they’re simple enough to be understood. There’s no complex technology between the people and the election results. That is an election that can be trusted and a secure mandate of heaven, one that can be transferred cycle after cycle, with confidence from the people, ensuring that the will of the people is being represented within their government. And so we need to make the elections local again, bring them back to the citizens again, put them in the citizens hands literally, and allow the people to tell the government who they’ve selected to represent them, as opposed to the government telling the people who the machines have tabulated to represent them, which could be two different things. And so it’s important that the people enforce not just their right, but their duty to count the vote. We have we have a right to vote, as some argue, we have a duty to vote. Similarly, a component of suffrage is also counting the votes. As Joe said, we need to. It’s more important who counts the votes than who actually votes. That’s true. Joseph Stalin said that. Joseph Biden also said that. And today, now looking at protecting our suffrage, we need to ensure that we’re also counting our votes, not just voting. I’m blessed by this really cool car, Tesla Model 3 Highland, and it drives me around everywhere I go. It’s not driving right now. I am off the road for this interview, but yeah, after a campaign stop, I get my car and I drive to the next place and I’m actually rested as opposed to stressing out on the roads and in the traffic, I’m able to de-stress. And so I’m really blessed by this competitive advantage. And campaigning is a very unique lifestyle. Over 75,000 miles on my car and over 50 counties I’ve been to so far in Colorado. So I’m really grateful for the opportunity for for the adventure, for the mission. And we’re only getting started. So I appreciate everybody’s vote to send me to the next level.