Week 27: You Can Trust Celeste to Protect Your Right to Vote

Dear Colorado Voter,

I have 3 goals in this campaign:

• To win and become the next Secretary of State

• To alert Coloradans about unprecedented, unconstitutional special elections

• To offer a nonpartisan-type candidate to be (an ideally nonpartisan) Sec of State

Regarding #2, you can trust me to protect your right to vote! As I have noted in previous emails, I'm the only candidate who seems concerned about voters in special elections being disenfranchised based solely on their belonging to the "wrong" party. Sometimes the Democratic Party will be the "wrong" party (like it was in the El Paso County Commissioner District 5 election in November 2025) and sometimes in the future (if we don't get the laws declared unconstitutional) it will be the Republican Party. Constituents who are members of the Forward Party, Libertarian Party and other third parties are always in the "wrong" party under these laws. This is not American!

Pundits are already calling all the Colorado statewide contests, including Secretary of State, for the Democrats. Some people have pushed back against the D vs R duopoly by collecting signatures to run as unaffiliated candidates (e.g., a dozen county clerk candidates, Greg Lopez for governor, and Shimon Blau for US House). I'm running with the Forward Party and fortunately didn't have to collect 8,000+ signatures. This is a good year not to vote a straight-party ballot. Independent voters and swing voters have independent choices this year!

I believe that the Republican nominee's 5-point voting creed – One Day. In person. Voter ID. Paper Ballot. Hand Count. – will not go over well with the electorate. Former CO Republican Party Chair Dick Wadhams won't vote for him, and the county clerks, most of whom are Republican, don't like his voting creed. I anticipate that the Republican candidate will get at most 30% of the vote. The Libertarian and American Constitution Party candidates will together get about 2.5% of the vote, leaving 68.5% of the vote to split between me and the Democrat; whichever of us two gets the most votes wins. Voters who lean Democrat need not fear that voting for me will elect the Republican.

Future events: Please tell people in Broomfield about a Meet and Greet on Tuesday, August 25th, 4:30-6:30pm at the Broomfield Community Center, 280 Spader Way. The event, some Grand Junction events, and Saturday's online Ask Me Anything at 9:30 are all posted at https://www.celeste4sos.com/ .

With enthusiasm and purpose,

Celeste