Pam Anderson is our choice for Colorado secretary of state in the June 28 Republican primary — both for who she is and for who she is not.

First, who Anderson is — an exceedingly experienced, knowledgeable, competent and widely respected elections expert who served as Jefferson County clerk and executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association. She has a sterling reputation for integrity and impartiality — for rising above the political fray — essential attributes for overseeing the state’s elections.

What’s almost as compelling is who Anderson is not. Most notably, she is not the current secretary of state, first-term Democrat Jena Griswold. Anderson is in fact pretty much the opposite of Griswold.

You’ve probably heard of Griswold. It’s not because she has done anything of substance since being elected secretary of state in 2018 but because she never stops promoting herself. Thanks to a massive campaign war chest fueled by nonstop fund-raising appeals, her publicity machine churns incessantly. It cranks out shrill, partisan diatribes on a host of topics that have little connection to her duties as secretary of state. It all smacks of a perpetual candidate who views her current perch as little more than a stepping stone to higher office.

Anderson would provide a refreshing antidote to all that. Her technical knowledge and sheer competence would be on display as secretary of state — not self-promotion and political hyperventilation.

Colorado’s secretaries of state, with few exceptions, historically have conducted the office’s business in a scrupulously nonpartisan way regardless of their own party affiliation. That’s as it has to be. While the office’s duties include serving as the state’s business registry, among other functions, its highest-profile activity is presiding over the elections that are run by Colorado’s 64 county clerks. There’s no room for bias. Anderson would restore that high standard.

As Jefferson County clerk, Anderson developed a signature-verification audit that ensures mismatched signatures on ballot envelopes are being caught. She pushed for 24-hour monitoring and security around ballot boxes. She supported efforts to bring more transparency to elections while safeguarding ballot anonymity.

Among the planks in her platform in the secretary of state’s race, she would push to regulate “ballot harvesting,” so voters can clearly see how ballots are collected by interest groups. She wants to expand post-election audits across the state. She strongly opposes HR1 and other bills in Congress that strip states of their ability to keep elections local. And she wants to increase resources for training and certifying local election officials.

In other words, under Anderson, competence and technical expertise would be back in vogue at the Secretary of State’s Office — and politics would be out. What a stark contrast she would provide to Griswold on next fall’s ballot. What a clear choice for voters.

In the upcoming primary itself, meanwhile, Anderson faces Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and first-time contender Mike O’Donnell. It’s worth noting Colorado GOP Party Chair Kristi Burton Brown, among other prominent Republicans, called on Peters in March to suspend her campaign after a Mesa County grand jury indicted her and her chief deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley, on multiple felonies involving access to election hardware and software. The charges stem from investigations last year after state election officials discovered secure passwords linked to Mesa County’s voting equipment had been posted online, as had digital copies of election-management software used by the county. (Peters maintains her innocence.)

All the more reason for Colorado voters in the Republican primary to ensure Pam Anderson is their party’s candidate on the fall ballot.

The Gazette Editorial Board

Republican former Jefferson County Clerk Pam Anderson wins our vote for secretary of state in the June 28 GOP primary.