Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Tuesday that President Donald Trump is attempting a “power grab” in trying to clamp down on mail-in voting. 

Trump discussed mail-in voting during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, where he said the two agreed it is not “honest.” Trump vowed Monday he will issue an executive order to ban mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 elections.

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Griswold said states are responsible for overseeing elections, “not Donald Trump.”

“Look, mail ballots are secure. They cannot be hacked because they‘re a piece of paper. That is increasingly more important, as Trump has made our elections less secure since taking office again. He‘s disbanded much of the federal government‘s work on countering foreign disinformation, and is obviously taking cues about democracy from a dictator, Putin,” Griswold said on CNN.

Griswold said Trump and his family used mail-in ballots during the 2020 presidential election. She said the president’s ire against this form of voting showcases him “escalating his attacks” on the U.S. Constitution.

The secretary of state encouraged people to “fight back,” and said she will do all she can to “stop” the Trump administration.

Griswold received national attention when she led an effort to remove Trump from her state’s 2024 primary ballot. However, this move lost on the federal level when the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that states cannot keep presidential candidates off primary ballots under the 14th Amendment.

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In October, just before the 2024 presidential election, Griswold said the partial passwords to Colorado’s voting system had been live on its website for several months and reported this to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. She also fired the employee responsible for this “serious mistake.” 

Trump’s bid to rid mail-in voting contrasts with his 2024 campaign, which created the Swamp the Vote USA grassroots program with Trump Force 47. Trump also encouraged Republicans to use every possible tool to defeat Democrats in the 2024 election.