DENVER—A federal judge has ordered Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman to immediately stop removing names from voter registration rolls, saying a purge so close to Election Day violates federal law.
The judge’s order came Friday in a lawsuit by voter advocacy groups who claim Coffman is illegally taking voters off the rolls.
Just two days earlier, Coffman reached an agreement with the groups that will allow thousands of voters whose names have been purged to cast ballots anyway. But state officials acknowledged Friday that 146 more names had been purged since the agreement.
An angry U.S. District Judge John Kane said Friday the removal of names violates a federal law that prevents voter purges within 90 days of a federal election, with only limited exceptions.
Kane warned that if Coffman doesn’t stop the practice, “he’ll be listening to me personally.”
Kane said he didn’t think the continuing removals amounted to contempt of court, but he had stern words for Coffman.
“I don’t think there’s anything deliberate about this, although there’s something obdurate about the secretary’s comments,” he said.
In a written statement, Coffman said he would follow Kane’s order, stopping all further purges and reinstating the 146 people removed this week.
Coffman spokesman Rich Coolidge said that means election officials won’t purge any voters in three groups that could still be legally removed: those who have moved, died or been convicted of a felony.
Coffman said of the 146 purged this week, 128 were duplicates or had moved, 12 had died, four had asked to be removed, one was a felon and one was not a citizen.
Coffman insisted he hadn’t violated the agreement, which didn’t specifically address whether more names could be removed before Election Day.
“My office and the county clerks were in full compliance” with the judge’s order enforcing the agreement, Coffman said.
The agreement, reached late Wednesday, requires the state to produce a list of any voters purged from May 14—90 before Colorado’s August primary—until Nov. 4. Anyone on that list who votes Tuesday will cast a provisional ballot, which is not counted until the voter’s eligibility is verified.
However, the agreement requires election officials to presume that all voters on the list are eligible unless authorities find evidence to the contrary. The agreement also gives voters on the list an appeal process.
The lawsuit over voter purges was filed by Colorado Common Cause, the Service Employees International Union and Mi Familia Vota. This week’s agreement did not end the suit but merely assured those who have been purged since May can cast provisional ballots.
The lawsuit alleged that an estimated 27,000 voters were removed within 90 days of the primary and general elections. Lawyers for the state argued the numbers were inflated but didn’t dispute that a substantial number of voter records had been canceled. They’ve said most were duplicate records eliminated as the state transferred to a new statewide voter registration database and, in those cases, said a voter’s most recent record remained active.
Richard L. Hasen, a professor specializing in election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said many states are going through similar battles, but Colorado is under additional scrutiny because it’s considered up for grabs in the presidential race.
Democrats have launched massive registration drives and favor making it easier to vote, while Republicans “are pushing for these voter purges,” he said.
Both sides are also looking ahead to possible challenges and other legal battles after the election, he said.
In Indianapolis on Friday, the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction that keeps open early voting centers in the Democratic strongholds of Gary, Hammond and East Chicago.
The ruling is the latest legal decision in a nearly monthlong dispute that has taken on racial overtones in heavily Democratic and racially diverse Lake County.
In a unanimous decision, the court upheld a special judge’s ruling last week that satellite in-person absentee voting centers should remain open. The Democrat-controlled Lake County election board had authorized the centers, but Republicans protested.
The Court of Appeals rejected Republican arguments that state law required an unanimous decision by the election board to open the satellite centers.
