Secretary of State Mike Coffman on Tuesday asked the state auditor to investigate allegations that one of his elections workers was selling voter data through a personal website.
Coffman said an initial probe by his office found that the worker, elections technology manager Daniel Kopelman, conducted outside activities “incompatible” with his job.
But he said he found no evidence Kopelman wrongfully accessed or sold state data.
Still, he sent a letter requesting an independent investigation.
Pending completion of that audit, Kopelman has been moved out of his job in the elections division and currently reports directly to the department’s chief information officer, said Jonathan Tee, Coffman’s spokesman.
State Democratic Party chair Pat Waak last week called on Coffman, a Republican, to fire Kopelman after the website epluribus media.org reported that he was offering to sell Republican candidates campaign data through his politicallivewires.com website.
Tee said “the initial results of our investigation show that Mr. Kopelman did not have access to the department’s voter registration data, and that he has not purchased voter-registration data from this office” since being appointed to his job in January.
However, he said, the investigation found Kopelman appears to have violated two state personnel rules: engaging in outside employment without permission and conducting activities “incompatible” with his state employment.
Kopelman could not be reached for comment.
Coffman, whose relationship with Kopelman dates back to 1994, said last week that he was “disappointed,” by the revelation of Kopelman’s website.
Kopelman previously worked for Coffman in the treasurer’s office, and took a leave last fall to work on Coffman’s campaign.
Waak’s complaint said Coffman’s campaign made two payments to politicallivewires in 2005, and made numerous payments to Kopelman personally.
Coffman’s previous campaign committees for other offices also show numerous transactions with Kopelman dating back to 1996.
Coffman said that Kopelman asked to be paid for his time under his website’s name, but that Coffman had not purchased voter information from Kopelman.
Coffman said his campaign purchased voter lists from Tactical Data Solutions.
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, the first name of Daniel Kopelman was incorrect.
