Many people know me by my Classic Studebaker pickup, the nearly 5,000 Romney banners I distributed or the thousands of houses walked for campaigns.

Here is the rest of my Story---
As a CPA with over 40 years experience in Public Accounting and Private industry...

• Involved in more than a dozen start up companies and mergers

• Built a company providing Finance/Accounting/Bank relationships for over 150 clients
• As Controller, consolidated data of 28 limited partnerships and 10 corporations with interests in 800 oil and gas wells to form a new publicly traded company
  
• Director of Parker Water and Sanitation District
  

These experiences are applicable to the Clerk’s office in managing complex situations with multiple moving parts.   

• Prepared over 100 business plans

• Built hundreds of budgets
• Managed large staffs

Management of the 3 Clerk and Recorder departments--: Motor Vehicle, Recording and Elections require these skill sets.

• Selected and installed software including multi-state payroll systems and large industry general ledgers
• Designed and wrote software

Elections in particular are dependent on integrity of software and an understanding of IT concepts is necessary to minimize risk.

• Active in numerous political campaigns
• An organizer on recall elections
• Primary organizer the first two attempts to form the City of Centennial and personally posted the bonds

These situations placed me on the other side of the table and knowledgeable of elections from the consumer perspective.

• An Election Judge working in the scan and reconciliation area in most elections since 2009.

This provides me with a working knowledge of the election function as currently executed in Douglas County.

I view Elections as the most important function of the Clerk. A clerk can’t insure that the party selects the best candidates or that the best candidates win an election. However, a clerk with less than honorable designs can allow the wrong candidate to be placed in office.

The difference between fairness and fraud in any election is internal control….  segregation of responsibilities and procedures in a manner that absent collusion prevents fraud. I’ve routinely designed, implemented and enforced internal control structures.

I’m seeking this office because Douglas of County is a great place to live. The Clerk and Recorder is the gatekeeper to honest elections required to continue to elect the best and keep Douglas County great.

Every campaign requires both Financial and Non-Financial support. I ask that you go to my "Support the Campaign" page to indicate your support for my campaign. In addition I ask you to attend caucus (March 4) and get yourself nominated to County convention (March 22) where you actually participate in selecting the party candidates.

Thank you for your support,

Merlin