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Polis, Bennet, Griswold, Weiser, Lopez discuss USPS, voting in Colorado

The Monday press conference was held at the Denver Elections Division’s signature verification room.

DENVER — Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colorado), U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colorado), Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Attorney General Phil Weiser, and Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul D. López held a press conference Monday morning to discuss voting-by-mail in Colorado.

Bennet, Polis, Griswold, Weiser, and López discussed how they believe Colorado can serve as a national model to successfully expand vote-by-mail.

The state leaders went over the various safeguards in place in Colorado to prevent voter fraud, and said ballot signatures are verified by a bi-partisan team of judges.

Polis said the state has set the national gold standard when it comes to elections, and that voting-by-mail is not a partisan issue. 

"We are proud in Colorado that we've led the way by demonstrating how safe and secure and reliable vote-by-mail can be," Polis said. 

Credit: 9NEWS

Griswold said that voting-by-mail for all is the responsible way to run an election during a pandemic.

"It's 2020 and no American should be forced to risk their life to cast a vote," Griswold said. "Voting by mail is like wearing a mask, it can save lives and help stop the spread of COVID-19." 

Griswold also defended the state’s largely mail-in voting system and said it needs to further bolster its capacity due to the pandemic during a press conference last week. 

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President Donald Trump has previously alleged that cutting U.S. Postal Service funding would starve the agency of money Democrats say it needs to process an anticipated surge in mail-ballots during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Griswold referred to Trump’s comments that he opposes additional funding to the USPS as “voter suppression.”

Colorado set a record for the highest-ever turnout for a non-presidential primary, with over 99% of votes cast using mail-in ballots in June, according to a news release from the Colorado governor's office.

You can watch the full press conference below: 

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