U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet urged the U.S. Senate to confirm Colorado’s Amber McReynolds for the U.S. Postal Service’s Board of Governors in a floor speech Wednesday evening.

One of the nation’s most recognized experts on election integrity, McReynolds’ nomination by President Joe Biden is a nod to the controversy generated in the last election, as then-President Donald Trump called into question the security of mail ballots.

McReynolds led Colorado’s switch to mail-ballot elections in 2013, providing the leadership, Bennet said, to help Colorado become a national model for making voting more simple and secure. He said Colorado saw costs go down, turnout go up and the system become popular with the public.

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“I guarantee you if a politician in Colorado tried to take away vote by mail, people would run them out of town,” Bennet said on the Senate floor. “We are proud of the model we built in a collaborative, nonpartisan way, and Ms. McReynolds deserves a lot of credit for that.

“She’s the right kind of leader who is not satisfied with the status quo.”

Back then, there was some thought that it would help Republicans, making it easier for people in rural communities to vote, he said.

The 2013 legislation passed the legislature and was signed by then-Gov. John Hickenlooper without a GOP vote, as Republicans raised concerns about fraud. The system, though, was implemented by two Republican secretaries of state. McReynolds was also key to working with Republican state and local election officials to use tablets and other equipment from Dominion Voting Systems, “a fantastic Colorado company,” Bennet said.

He called the former Denver elections director one of the most respected professionals in the elections arena, serving the city and county of Denver for 13 years, seven as its elections director. Bennet said.

She has led the National Vote at Home Institute since 2018.

Last October, Time magazine called McReynolds “the country’s most outspoken evangelist for voting by mail.”

“I am grateful to Senator Bennet for his support and speech for my nomination to the USPS Board and I am also grateful to Sen. Hickenlooper and many senators who have supported my nomination,” McReynolds said in a text after the speech.

Watch Bennet’s speech here.

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