Secretary of State spends $1 million+ on TV PSA with taxpayer money; Republicans say it’s a campaign ad

DENVER, Colo. (KRDO)-- Democratic Secretary of State Jenna Griswold is running a television PSA promoting the security of Colorado's elections. But, she's using more than a million taxpayer dollars to pay for them.

The funding for the ads comes from the Help America Vote Act. According to Griswold's office, she is using less than 10% of the federally allocated money on the ads.

But in the eyes of Jena Griswold's opponent, and the person standing beside her in the ads, even just 1% is too much.

"One of the things you have to be careful of when you hold elected office is to balance the need to communicate, with the need to also make sure that you use taxpayer funds appropriately," Former Republican Secretary of State Wayne Williams said. "I was more cautious as Secretary of State."

The ad begins with Griswold and Williams standing together, with the pair saying, "Hi, I'm Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold," and Williams adds "I'm Wayne Williams, a Republican, and former Secretary of State."

With no disclaimer in the ads, Republican Secretary of State candidate Pam Anderson says it's more like self-promotion.

"It's not the message, it's the messenger," Anderson adds Coloradans should not be paying for an ad that features Griswold so prominently. Griswold's campaign should be.

"You could use this money for cyber navigators at the local level to complete and close the loop on the security of our voting systems. Not vanity projects for commercials."

Williams says he filmed the ads to support democracy and trust in Colorado elections, shooting them before the primary elections in June. That's when he thought they'd run.

"At that point, of course, the current secretary was unopposed in her primary," Williams said.

Despite still appearing in the ads, Williams is not voting for Griswold. In fact, he's standing next to her in those ads, but he's actually endorsing her opponent, Anderson.

"My preference would have been that this would have run much earlier in the cycle," Williams told KRDO

Anderson is trying to get the ads taken off the air, circulating an online petition. A formal complaint was filed Monday by an outside group, alleging Griswold committed a campaign finance violation. 

Williams says he's asked Griswold's office to stop running the PSA at least 30 days before ballots are sent out for the general election. He claims the secretary of state's office has agreed to pull them by then.

Griswold's office responded to KRDO saying, "Disinformation is one of the most significant threats to our elections because it strikes right at the heart of voter confidence and has created threats to election security. The Secretary of State’s Office has a responsibility to build resilience against the election disinformation and ensure Colorado voters have accurate information about our elections. As the state’s current and former Chief Election Officials, Secretary Griswold and former Secretary Williams are two of the state’s most trusted sources for election information.  A bipartisan message from two Secretaries of State sends a strong message to voters that Colorado’s elections are secure.”