Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s office accused the Department of Homeland Security on Friday of using “stall tactics” to prevent Colorado from verifying the citizenship status of about 4,500 registered voters.
Gessler asked the DHS in March to help his office ensure no noncitizens are on the state’s voter rolls. In a letter to Secretary Janet Napolitano, he said that ensuring only citizens are registered and voting is “imperative to the integrity of Colorado elections.”
Critics said they feared the effort would intimidate voters in advance of the November presidential election and that trying to match state and federal databases could result in people who are eligible to vote being incorrectly removed.
Last month, the director of that said the department “must further assess serious legal and operational issues that remain before we can make a determination on your request.”
Director Alejandro Mayorkas also said his office would provide an updated response to Gessler’s request once the assessment is complete.
“We’re disappointed,” Andrew Cole, a spokesman for Gessler’s office, said Friday. “It’s politics, but it’s also a federal bureaucracy that is unable or unwilling to work toward a solution.”
The roughly 4,500 names the state wants verified are people who provided a noncitizen document — such as an alien-registration card, or “green card” — when they applied for a Colorado driver’s license and who also are registered to vote.
About 2,000 of those people have cast ballots in recent elections, spokesman Rich Coolidge said.
The list may include people who are in the country legally but are not citizens and who registered to vote, either when getting a driver’s license or through some other method. It also may include those who became citizens after applying for a driver’s license.
The office is evaluating its options, and Gessler is discussing the issue with fellow secretaries of state in Florida and Michigan, which have had similar requests denied, Coolidge said.
Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661 or sburnett@denverpost.com
