GRAND JUNCTION, Colo –
“From the beginning we wanted to be the ones choosing, because we think the constitution allows us that authority and we believe Wayne Williams is probably one of the best in the state when it comes to elections, he has a ton of experience,” Cody Davis, Mesa County Commissioner said.
Wayne Williams has devoted his time to Mesa County through his past positions as Clerk and Recorder, County Commissioner, Secretary of State, and his current position as City Council Member. Williams will now continue his service to Mesa County as the Commissioner’s Designated Election Official.
“He is the best choice to come in and he has done this elsewhere in other counties where he has come in as the Designated Election Official,” Davis said.
The ongoing election debate has caused division among Mesa County residents.
Some community members do not trust electronic voting, “We demand that the upcoming school board election be conducted with a hand counted paper ballot,” Mesa County resident said. “While others have distrust in hand counted ballots, “there was a lot of concern about the hand counting portion of that because those can be just as corrupt as any,” Mesa County resident said, but County Commissioners believe their plan for the upcoming election will meet the needs of both sides.
“We are going to all the above this fall and we will have arguably the most robust and most trusted election I think we have ever seen around here because we are going to implement both hand counts and electronic tabulation from both Clear Ballot and Dominion this fall,” Davis said.
Designated Election Official, Wayne Williams and previous Clerk and Recorder, Sheila Reiner will work as a team to oversee the upcoming election.
“We could not have done this, the three of us could not have accomplished this without that team down there, we’ve got a great team in place,” Scott McInnis, Mesa County Commissioner said.
Given the quickly approaching deadlines for the November 2021 election, the Secretary of State will proceed with a lawsuit to remove Tina Peters as designated election official.
This legal action seeks to legally bar Tina Peters from serving as Designated Election Official.
In part to the lawsuit against Tina Peters, the Secretary of States office requests that Wayne Williams be appointed as the Designated Election official and Sheila Reiner be appointed as the Director of Elections for Mesa County.