Calling the Bluff: 561 Voters Refuse to Be the “Secretary’s Shield”
Dear Editor:
How a five-day grassroots surge is dismantling the “privacy” excuse in federal court.
For months, I’ve watched a scripted standoff play out between the Colorado Secretary of State and the federal government. Like many of you, I have found the official narrative increasingly difficult to believe. While the Secretary of State publicly claims she is “protecting our privacy” by refusing to produce voter rolls for a federal audit, her actions suggest a different motive. (In late 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold in federal court, seeking to compel the release of unredacted voter information. The lawsuit, part of a broader DOJ investigation into voter roll compliance, alleges violations of the National Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) following her refusal to provide detailed voter data.)
It appears she is not protecting the voters but rather using our names as a convenient shield to obstruct a legitimate comparison of her records against the data preserved by Tina Peters. (Peters, the former clerk of Mesa County, is serving a nine-year prison sentence for her conviction of state crimes pertaining to allowing unauthorized access to election machines in a previous election. She reportedly was convicted of efforts to overturn the 2020 election of Joe Biden as president. President Donald Trump has sought her pardon for these state crimes, but state officials have denied this request. Some Democratic Party leaders, though, such as Colorado Governor Jared Polis, have questioned the length of the sentence.)
On January 31st, I decided to test whether I was the only one who saw through this “privacy” excuse. I launched a simple website providing a sworn privacy waiver and a legal declaration. It gave Colorado voters a way to look the court in the eye and say: “Do not use me as your justification for secrecy. I waive my privacy so the audit can proceed.”
The response was a landslide.
In just five days, 561 Colorado citizens signed that declaration. This isn’t just a small group of activists; these signatures represent 90% of Colorado’s counties and a multi-party coalition of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. When 561 people from nearly every corner of this state mobilize that fast, it’s a signal that the public is tired of “protection” that looks like obstruction.
We aren’t asking for conspiracy theories; we are asking for the math to be checked. If the Secretary of State has nothing to hide, there is no reason to block a federal comparison of the records.
On February 6th, 2026, I took the unprecedented step of filing those 561 sworn waivers with an Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court) brief in the ongoing federal audit case, Case No. 25-cv-03967. While the term sounds technical, the purpose is human. This filing ensures Chief Judge Philip A. Brimmer knows that the “privacy” excuse is officially dead. By signing these waivers, we have reclaimed our own data. We are telling the Court: “We do not want our information hidden to protect a bureaucracy; we want it opened to ensure our votes were counted correctly.”
This isn’t about partisanship; it’s about the fundamental right of the governed to audit the government. Our local mountain communities have always valued independence and accountability. By joining this filing, we are signaling that Coloradans are not passive observers—we are active participants demanding that the Secretary of State comply with the Department of Justice.
Transparency isn’t a gift given by the state; it is a standard we must demand.
To join the effort or view the declaration, visit
https://linktr.ee/
Facebook: Transparency Colorado
Danielle Purdy
Teller County Resident
