DENVER — Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold has called on lawmakers to limit the use of discretionary recounts in state elections to only close races, arguing that the current system allows for “bad actors” to inject doubts into often settled races.
“It’s an important check on democracy that candidates in close races can have that recount,” Griswold, a Democrat in her second term, said in an interview Monday. The recount provision would be part of a broader bill she’s working on with Senate Democrats to tweak the state’s elections laws. “But when you have double-digit margins, it’s implausible — so unlikely — that a recount will actually lead to a change in the actual results.”
But the president of the Senate — the man who’s drafting the bill Griswold is pitching — isn’t sold on the recount adjustment. In fact, he told reporters last week, he thinks it would do the very thing Griswold says it would help avoid: sow doubt in election results.
