The office of Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman scrambled Wednesday to correct a problem with its voter-registration database, which was incorrectly informing voters of their party affiliation.
The state Democratic Party told the office Wednesday morning that several individuals who have registered as either Democrats or Republicans found that their status was listed as “unaffiliated.”
The glitch raised immediate concerns from party officials and others who feared that potential participants in Colorado’s Feb. 5 caucuses would think they weren’t allowed to take part because only those voters who have registered with the Democrats or the Republicans by Dec. 5 are able to caucus.
Both political parties have links taking potential caucus-goers to the secretary of state’s voter-registration database.
Coffman said the problem would be fixed immediately.
“This is a very minor issue,” Coffman said. “The information has been available all along at their (voters’) respective county clerk’s office. And it’s being corrected. It will be updated tonight or by tomorrow morning.”
Coffman said that the field that contained voter affiliation submitted by county clerks’ offices somehow wasn’t getting logged in the state office’s online voter-registration information database during the move to a new system.
Denver lawyer Paul Means also stumbled onto the problem. Means said he and his wife were making sure they were set to caucus when the state’s Democratic Party website directed them to the secretary of state’s database.
Though Means has lived in Colorado for two years and registered as a Democrat, the site showed he was “unaffiliated.”
“My first inclination was that, ‘Well, I’ll do something else that night,’ ” Means said. “My concern is that people won’t inquire past the secretary of state website and will just call it off.”
The state Republican Party wasn’t aware of the problem, said its chairman, Dick Wadhams, and he dismissed the Democratic Party’s criticisms.
“It’s the job of the Democratic Party to be critical of a Republican secretary of state,” Wadhams said. “I’m confident that (Coffman) will correct the problem as soon as possible.”
Chuck Plunkett: 303-954-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com
