Colorado officials deny illegally purging voters

DENVER - Colorado elections officials say they haven't illegally purged voters from registration rolls but have placed some on "canceled status" because their eligibility is in question.

The secretary of state's office defended its practices Thursday after The New York Times reported that Colorado — a swing state with the potential to decide a close presidential election — had illegally purged voters within 90 days of the Nov. 4 election.

Rich Coolidge, a spokesman for Secretary of State Mike Coffman, said voters who are believed to have died, moved away or otherwise become ineligible have been "canceled" but left on the rolls.

Coolidge said voters who have been wrongly canceled can cast provisional ballots that would be counted after elections officers verify they are eligible.

Coolidge said the state intensified its review of voter registration rolls after it recently implemented its first statewide voter database, called SCORE, for State of Colorado Registration and Election.

It was not immediately clear how many of the state's 3.1 million registered voters have been "canceled."

An Associated Press review shows that four populous Colorado counties — Adams, Arapahoe, Denver and Jefferson — have fewer names on the rolls of active and inactive voters than they did at this time in 2004.

The decline comes despite an infusion of new voters. State officials say more than 217,000 people have registered to vote in Colorado this year, including nearly 113,000 since the end of July.

The Times reported Thursday that six swing states including Colorado had illegally purged voters, apparently by mistake and not because of any intentional violations by election officials or coordinated efforts by any party.

A report published last month by the good-government watchdog U.S. Public Interest Research Group listed Colorado among states that "directly contradict the 90-day rule" for cleaning up voter lists.

Republican and Democratic party officials in Colorado said they've had no reason to worry about the cleanup of voter rolls.

Dick Wadhams, head of the state GOP, said he has "tremendous confidence" that nothing improper has been done.

A spokesman for the state Democratic Party, Matthew Farrauto, said his party so far has no gripe, either.

"I have no evidence that (Coffman) has arbitrarily removed people," Farrauto said.

Democrats have expressed concern that many newly registered voters may have to cast provisional ballots if they don't show up with an identification card. First-time or newly reactivated voters who registered by mail must to show ID to vote, or their ballots will be flagged until they return with ID.

But Farrauto said Democrats don't fear the secretary of state's office is "canceling" voters improperly.

"We sort of don't need to jump off that bridge until we have to," he said.

On the Net:

Colorado elections: http://www.elections.colorado.gov

U.S. PIRG report: http://www.uspirg.org/uploads/zB/on/zBonCgneZ5UC77QXtYfQfg/Vanishing-Voters-update.pdf