This story was first published at Colorado Newsline.
DENVER | Colorado’s secretary of state and voter advocates say they stand by Colorado’s election system and workers following the Trump administration’s latest attempt to target election officials.
The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter earlier this week that threatens criminal prosecution of election officials who allow noncitizen voting. The department confirmed to Democracy Docket that it sent similar letters to all 50 states and Washington, D.C., Tuesday.
“This is another thinly-veiled attempt by the Department of Justice to intimidate election officials and coerce compliance with their efforts to unlawfully inject the federal government into States’ constitutional duty to oversee elections,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement. “We stand ready to defend the rights of every voter and protect our elections.”
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The letters are part of the administration’s “desperate attempt” to get states to hand over private voter data, Aly Belknap, executive director of Colorado Common Cause, said.
“Basically they’re trying to intimidate our election officials,” Belknap said. “At the end of the day, we know that our voter rolls are kept accurate and only people who are eligible to vote are on them.”
Christo Luna, deputy state director at Mi Familia Vota in Colorado, a nonprofit that advocates for Latino voters, said it’s already illegal for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and secure state and local systems exist to keep them from voting. The threats in the letter represent another attempt by President Donald Trump and his allies to purge voters and deny eligible citizens their right to vote, he said.
“It’s part of a broader effort to intimidate minority voters and suppress our voices, along with gerrymandering, the SAVE America Act, and an executive order that a court already voided that would have the federal government interfere with mail ballots,” Luna said in a statement.
The SAVE America Act would implement a nationwide requirement that voters show documents proving their citizenship. In March, Trump signed an executive order attempting to restrict voting by mail, which a federal judge blocked.
Claims of widespread noncitizen voting in U.S. elections have been repeatedly debunked. While the Trump administration wants people to believe that noncitizen voting has changed election results, their efforts lead to elections that are skewed by eligible voters being unable to participate, Belknap said.
Safeguards already in place
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, sent the letters to Griswold and other election officials around the country. They highlight federal election law that requires state and local officials to maintain voter records to ensure only eligible U.S. citizens vote in federal elections. The letter sent to Griswold’s office asks it to tell the division how Colorado plans to ensure compliance. Anyone who knowingly allows noncitizen voting could be charged criminally, the letter says.
The Colorado County Clerks Association outlines the safeguards already in place that ensure only eligible voters participate in elections. Some records are updated daily: That includes voter registrations made automatically when an eligible voter receives or updates their driver’s license or identification card, voter records for people serving felony sentences in state prison, and possible duplicate records flagged by the state.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment provides monthly lists of deaths among registered Colorado voters. The Election Registration Information Center, known as ERIC, allows participating states to compare voter registrations and avoid duplicate records in multiple states.
The Department of Justice announced plans this week to send election monitors to jurisdictions in six states with competitive elections. The department could similarly target Colorado, site of a competitive congressional race and to which Trump has also shown a “vendetta and ideological opposition,” Belknap said.
Trump’s ultimate goal is to seize control and cast doubt on future election results, Belknap said. But Trump’s voter intimidation efforts have repeatedly been defeated, and those losses will continue in Colorado, she said.
Mi Familia Vota works to educate voters, provide accurate up-to-date information, combat misinformation and help voters choose the voting method that works best for them, Luna said.
“People are motivated to defend our rights and our vote,” Luna said. “Our Democracy is strongest when everyone who is eligible participates and votes, and that includes Latino families committed to making our voices heard at the ballot box.”
The Department of Justice is suing Griswold over her refusal to supply sensitive voter information to the Trump administration. The case is ongoing in U.S. District Court in Denver.
Griswold, Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser all submitted comments to the U.S. Postal Service opposing a proposed rule that says the agency won’t deliver mail ballots in states that refuse to turn over lists of voters. Two courts blocked the Postal Service’s rulemaking process, but it appealed the decision and asked the court to allow the rulemaking to continue throughout the appeal process.
Every active registered voter in Colorado receives a ballot in the mail.