Secretary Williams honors former SOS Natalie Meyer

DENVER, Nov. 6, 2017 -- Natalie Meyer, a former school teacher turned campaign manager turned Colorado’s longest serving secretary of state, today received a national award given to those who make a difference.

Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams presented Meyer with the NASS Medallion Award from the National Association of Secretaries of State.

The award came as a surprise to Meyer, who had been invited to Denver Elections on the guise of welcoming municipal clerks who were there for training. Williams said when he was running for office in 2014 he remembers a Democrat saying what Colorado needed was a secretary of state like Natalie Meyer.

“She stood up for what she believed was right and she did a fantastic job for 12 years,” he said.

Meyer served from 1983 to 1995, and was credited with helping to modernize the office. The Republican polled more votes on the statewide ballot in 1986 than any other politician in either party.

“Secretary of State Natalie Meyer, the arbiter of controversies ranging from ballot access to bingo licensing, raised a glass of champagne yesterday and announced she won't seek re-election next year,” The Denver Post wrote in 1993.

“But she didn’t retire,” Williams said today. “For the next two decades she kept coming in and working as an elections judge in Denver. She has an unrelenting commitment to election integrity.”

Attending the presentation was another former secretary of state, Donetta Davidson, who served as Meyer’s elections director.

Before becoming secretary of state, Meyer held a held a number of political posts, including serving as campaign manager for former U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong’s 1976 successful re-election bid. Prior to that, Meyer taught typing, bookkeeping, shorthand, history and English at Bear Valley and Wheat Ridge high schools until her first daughter was born.

This is the fifth NASS Medallion award that Williams has presented since taking office in 2015. Davidson and attorney John Moye were honored at the same ceremony. Williams also gave awards to former Morgan County Clerk and Recorder Connie Ingmire, and the Douglas County School Board.