The Denver Election Commission said Monday it has found more than half of its 150,000 missing voter records as questions surfaced about who knew the sensitive data were lost and for how long.
An aide to Councilwoman Marcia Johnson revealed Monday she sent an e-mail to the Hickenlooper administration in April detailing the allegations.
And an Election Commission employee who has filed a whistle-blower suit said election managers knew months ago that voter information was lost.
The missing records have raised identify-theft concerns because they contain names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, signatures and addresses.
Commission spokesman Alton Dillard said that while some employees may have known the data were missing, senior staff and commissioners did not know the records were lost until last week when Councilwoman Judy Montero asked them to check allegations that surfaced on a blog.
“We’re still trying to investigate who knew what when,” Dillard said.
Johnson on Monday night said she is considering asking the City Council to abolish the three-member commission and replace it with a high-profile structure similar to the Denver Water Board.
Meanwhile, Dillard said the commission recovered 87,000 of the records in a bin in the basement of the commission’s former headquarters. The commission moved from its headquarters at 200 W. 14th St. to its new location at the Minoru Yasui Plaza, 303 W. Colfax Ave., in February. The bin was labeled for the agency’s February move, he said.
Johnson’s aide, Lynn Pressnall, a former City Council candidate in 2001, on Monday released the e-mails she had forwarded to Michelle Lucero, an assistant city attorney. The e-mails were dated April 19 and April 27.
The mayor’s chief of staff, Cole Finegan, stressed that the ability of the administration to respond was hampered because the commission is an independent agency.
“When we receive hearsay or rumors or random information, when we get that information, the city attorney’s office passes it on in a privileged attorney-client communication,” Finegan said, adding that type of information would have been forwarded to Wayne Vaden, the city’s clerk and recorder who is a member of the commission.
Dillard said none of the commissioners, including Vaden, had received an e-mail from the city attorney’s office or the Hickenlooper administration detailing the concerns.
William Brennan, an Election Commission assistant and five-year employee, said election managers knew months ago voter information was lost.
“The microfiche was missing since Feb. 10 and the signature cards from 2005 were missing since before the move,” he said.
Brennan has been on administrative leave with pay for 60 days. Brennan says he was retaliated against for criticizing former commission director Karon Hatchett in front of the commission and other employees.
In March, he filed a federal lawsuit – the third employee suit against Hatchett and the commission in the past year.
Staff writer Karen E. Crummy contributed to this report.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-820-1747 or at cosher@denverpost.com.
