The El Paso County clerk defended the security of mail-in ballots after President Donald Trump cited the ballots as a factor in his decision to move U.S. Space Command headquarters out of the county.

At a Sept. 2 news conference when Trump announced that Space Command would move from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Ala., Trump repeated previous claims about the perceived risk of mail ballots and claimed that Colorado had “automatically crooked elections.”

County Clerk Steve Schleiker said he was taken aback by the statements. While Schleiker said he didn’t want to get involved in the political fight over Space Command, he pointed to the hundreds of thousands of local Trump voters who supported the current system.

“You’re talking to everybody that voted for President Trump in El Paso County, that gave him that 53% majority here in the county, that their votes did not matter. They did not count,” Schleiker said.

El Paso County and Huntsville’s home in Madison County, Ala., had nearly identical support for Trump in the 2024 presidential election. Trump won El Paso County with 53.5% of the vote, slightly more than the 53.35% he received in Madison County.

Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that “it is deeply ironic that President Trump made a decision about the Space Force based on Colorado’s election model, yet moved it to Alabama, a state whose system provides neither the access nor the security that Colorado’s does.”

In 2013, Colorado’s county clerks — at the time, the vast majority of them Republicans — designed and championed the nation’s first modern mail ballot system, Crane added.

“Their work laid the foundation for what is now recognized as the most reliable, transparent, and accessible election model in the country.”

Just under 59% of Alabama voters cast votes in the last presidential election, compared to 71% turnout in Colorado for registered voters.

Schleiker said tying mail ballots to a decision about military facilities was especially odd because of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. The 1986 federal law allows active-duty military members and their spouses to vote by absentee ballot in the state where they have their “place of residence.”

“There are going to be individuals stationed in Alabama who want to remain a Colorado citizen, and they are going to call my office to make sure their registration is correct and they receive their ballot,” Schleiker said.

Alabama does allow absentee voting on request in some circumstances. The mail ballots have to be requested from a local elections manager and voters have to provide a photo ID and a reason they cannot vote in-person on Election Day.

According to the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office, allowed reasons for an absentee ballot include illness, disability, military service outside the county, working as an election officer or having a 10-hour work shift while polls are open.

In the 2024 general election, 5.5% of Alabama voters cast an absentee ballot. Colorado sees an inverse demand for mail-in ballots, where 92% of all votes in the last general election used the option.

Schleiker said his office had taken additional steps in the last two years to make El Paso County “the model of election transparency.” Recent efforts include a partnership with Experian to clean up voter rolls and livestream footage of the ballot drop boxes during elections.

Denver Gazette reporter Deborah Smith contributed to this report.