Abigail Silzell, GOP candidate for Mesa County Clerk, opposes mail in voting, wants to return to paper ballots & hand-counting, and would ask citizens which law they want her to break if she deems it necessary

On April 13, 2026, Republican candidate for Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Abigail Silzell attended a Q & A session at Appleton Christian Church hosted by the right wing group Stand for the Constitution, which still supports Tina Peters. The session was 35 minutes long and is available on the internet as an audio podcast. 

The main points discovered about Silzell that stood out during this session were:

• Silzell is not in favor of mail-in voting and wants to have only single-day, in-person voting.
• She wants to “go back to hand-counting and paper ballots.”
• She is not in favor of Colorado’s Automatic Voter Registration law,  also called the Motor-Voter law, which automatically gives people the opportunity to register to vote when they show up to conduct business at state offices, like the DMV or drivers license office, with identification that proves they are a citizen. The same law also uses this opportunity to update county voter rolls with people’s new addresses or other contact information.
• When asked why she became a candidate for Mesa County Clerk, Silzell answered that she was influenced to do so by election denier Joe Oltmann and God.
• When asked the question, “Recently the Clerk of El Paso County got out of the Colorado County Clerks Association. What would be your thoughts [on this]?,” Silzell answered “I would remove myself and Mesa County from the County Clerks Association because it has way too much to do with Wayne Williams and that is not what we want to be.” (Wayne Williams is a Republican who served as Colorado Secretary of state from 2015-2019.  Wayne Williams has no role in the Colorado County Clerks Association. The Mesa County Commissioners put Williams in charge of administering Mesa County’s November, 2021 election after Tina Peters came under investigation by the 21st Judicial District and the FBI for election tampering.)

Several people were also concerned about the following exchange that occurred during the Q&A session:

Q: “If the federal government is saying you must do this, and the state government is saying you must do THIS [meaning take a different action], the Clerk is kind of caught in the middle. Either way you go, you’re going to be in trouble. But nothing stops you from standing on the courtyard steps and telling the constituents the predicament that you’re in [and saying] ‘People, I can’t protect you because I cannot enforce the federal government because the Secretary of State is saying THIS,’ and then saying ‘I need your help’ and that way the constituents can step up and help put pressure to change some of these things.”

A: “Yes, and there might be a time where I have that. If I need the support I will definitely reach out and tell people because, like, if I get in that spot where there is no win and either way I’m breaking federal law or I’m breaking state law, then it comes to you to help me figure out which one you would essentially have me break.”

People are concerned that if Silzell was elected Mesa County Clerk and found herself in a situation where she was unclear on whether state or federal law took precedence, she would turn to area citizens to ask them essentially “which law they want her to break” instead of seeking legal guidance from an appropriate source to sort out the situation and act in a way that assures she complies with applicable laws.