DENVER—A worker in the secretary of state’s office broke conflict-of-interest rules when he set up a political Web site, but there was no evidence he sold voter information in violation of state laws, state auditors said Monday.
Auditors also said Secretary of State Mike Coffman failed to properly supervise his employees and said they found four other workers in his office who failed to disclose outside employment or business ownership as required by state personnel rules.
Coffman told state lawmakers he set up a new policy preventing election workers on his staff from partisan activity and will require employees to file conflict of interest reports twice a year.
He called the audit a vindication of his internal investigation that found no criminal violations. An ethics group questioned why the employee was transferred to work on a new, more sensitive voter database Coffman plans to use in elections next year.
“The question is whether that’s disciplinary action enough,” said Chantell Taylor, director of Ethics Watch, a nonprofit organization that called for the investigation of the complaints.
Coffman also defended the employee, Dan Kopelman, who was transferred to a new project and had his pay reduced.
“The fact is, he was cleared of this. I need his expertise. It was a misjudgment, but not misconduct,” Coffman said.
Auditors said they found serious problems with the state’s current voter registration database, including 3,533 individuals with two voter registrations on the list for the November general election. Auditors said seven of them cast two ballots in the election.
They also found eight felons who voted in the November election in violation of state law, and 380 people still on the rolls more than three months after they died, though auditors found no evidence votes were cast in their names.
Coffman, who took office in January, said it’s up to county clerks to clean up their election rolls and he promised to do a better job making sure they comply.
Rep. Victor Mitchell, R-Castle Rock, said the number of ineligible voters who voted was small compared with the 2.8 million registered voters last year.
“That’s a tremendous finding. The secretary of state’s office should be commended on this,” Mitchell said.
