Colorado: 30k Non-citizens Offered To Register To Vote… Who is To Blame?

“The department has become aware that approximately 30,000 EBU [Eligible but Unregistered] postcard mailers were incorrectly sent to ineligible Coloradans,” said an unidentified spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. “The office is undertaking an internal review of the incident and will take any corrective action that is warranted.”

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold is taking fire after her office admitted they made an error in sending out postcards to 30,000 individuals that are not eligible to vote. The Secretary of State’s office claims that there are checks in place to prevent ineligible people to register to vote and the Public Interest Legal Foundation is requesting documentation for proof that their checks work.

This comes after the Public Interest Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State’s office for not allowing the inspection of the voter list maintenance records. It should also be noted that Colorado has a membership with the nonprofit Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). It is because of this membership that Colorado is required to send the “eligible but unregistered” postcards out.

When carried out correctly, this requirement poses no issues. However, in this instance 30,000 ineligible individuals received these EBU postcards which does in fact pose issues. Now the county clerks and Secretary of State’s office must compare the list of those who received the postcards to the statewide voter list DAILY in order to “ensure none of those individuals register”.

Read more here.