Gessler To Homeland Security: Do My Fishing For Me

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by: Colorado Pols

As the Pueblo Chieftain’s Peter Roper reports:

Secretary of State Scott Gessler won’t release the names of the 4,500 people his office has identified who were registered to vote in Colorado but may not be U.S. citizens. Not even to the county clerks who have asked to see the names of those registered in their counties.

“I’m not going to cast a shadow of suspicion over those people until I know whether they registered and voted illegally,” Gessler told The Pueblo Chieftain editorial board Wednesday. “I believe I’m on strong legal ground in not releasing those names.”

That said, Gessler added that he eventually wants the federal Department of Homeland Security to review all Colorado voter registrations to check their citizenship…

This latest move by Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, asking the federal Department of Homeland Security to verify the status of some 4,500 voters Gessler “believes” may be noncitizens improperly registered to vote could be a political posturing masterstoke–we’ll start by conceding that. We’re not at all sure that DHS will agree to perform these checks, and if they refuse, Gessler can claim that the Obama administration is “blocking” his attempt to verify the citizenship of these voters. Never mind, as we’ve said all along as Gessler has raised these questions without conclusive evidence, that tens of thousands of people became citizens in Colorado in the last few years–easily enough to account for the number Gessler cites.

But as usual, this doesn’t seem to be about actually solving problems, as Roper continues:

Pressed on why he wasn’t providing the 4,500 names to the respective county clerks, Gessler said he doubted they had the legal authority to challenge a voter’s citizenship.

“I’ve asked county clerks what they would do with that information and they said nothing, that they would wait for my office to challenge the voter’s citizenship,” Gessler replied.

Sheila Reiner, the Mesa County clerk and a fellow Republican, had a different recollection. [Pols emphasis] She submitted a written proposal to Gessler’s office saying that if the names were provided, she would send letters to those in Mesa County asking about their citizenship.

You see, there’s nothing preventing county clerks from looking into the possibility of noncitizens being improperly registered to vote. They want the information so they can help. Republican Mesa County Clerk Sheila Reiner has repeatedly offered to assist Secretary of State Gessler in getting to the bottom of this, and Gessler has been the one failing to cooperate with her office.

And now, asking Homeland Security to “verify” something that is in fact easily accounted for, as a segue into them “verifying” every voter in Colorado–a totally ridiculous and inappropriate punting of responsibility–folks, we really get the notion, shared by a growing number of county clerks, that Scott Gessler isn’t interested in a constructive outcome.

Maybe it’s just about the posturing–or a set up for something worse later this year? We just can’t shake the fact that this is the man who gave Gigi Dennis her bright ideas in 2006. And every time a clerk, a Republican clerk, says they’re getting nervous and confused about what Gessler is doing, we become increasingly suspicious that Gessler knows exactly what he’s doing.

15 thoughts on “Gessler To Homeland Security: Do My Fishing For Me”

BlueCat says:

March 22, 2012 at 8:56 pm

He’d then have to stop pretending it’s a serious problem requiring draconian solutions.

Meantime the paper that fired Littwin has served up editorials supporting those draconian solutions for a problem for which no one has offered a scrap of proof of existence while high fiving the defeat of a bill to make distributing false election info a felony.

Let’s see. Which affects elections more: A merely possible but unlikely few voting illegally and having their votes actually count, as yet unproved in even one case, or face book posts and widely distributed fliers telling Dem leaning demos and neighborhood residents that their polling place has changed or that election day has been changed to a date after the real one or that if they have any outstanding traffic or parking tickets they will be arrested when they try to vote?

According to the paper that fired Littwin and to Repugs, the first scenario is a threat to the republic, the second just harmless pranks. This has nothing to do with protecting elections and everything to do with suppressing the Democratic vote.

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1. DaftPunk says:
  
  March 22, 2012 at 11:51 pm
  
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  1. BlueCat says:
    
    March 23, 2012 at 1:23 am
    
    initials like this, I can google and find out what the heck they mean. No luck with google for these. So thanks? Screw you? I have no clue which. I’m an old lady who doesn’t speak text.
    
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    1. Gray in Mountains says:
      
      March 23, 2012 at 1:46 am
      
      Google probably doesn’t have it…yet
      
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      1. BlueCat says:
        
        March 23, 2012 at 7:40 am
        
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Fidel's dirt nap says:

March 22, 2012 at 8:57 pm

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1. VanDammer says:
  
  March 22, 2012 at 9:39 pm
  
  1) DHS likely can’t comment on request for investigation so Gessler crows citing that as proof or fraud when it’s really just security bureaucracy
  
  2) DHS denies request for investigation so Gessler crows about Fed’s conspiracy with Dems to allow voter fraud (builds on ColPols post)
  
  either way, Gessler extends his GOP bona-fides to become the Repug poster boy for the Great Voter Fraud fight 2012. GOP needs another ACORN to drum up more white hate & bigtory for 2012 election and Scottie sees his chance to shine.
  
  If only someone Fed level could compel Scottie to put up or shut up. Let’s see Scottie forced to publicly share his preliminary evidence before the Feds go fishing.
  
  Fuxsake he spends a lot of time on this obsession. Do other areas of SoS responsibility suffer for the sake of this subject? All his noise on this makes me wonder if it’s to deflect attention from other doings.
  
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2. Ralphie says:
  
  March 22, 2012 at 9:53 pm
  
  He’s making brown people scared to register to vote.
  
  That’s his apparent intent.
  
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Alexei says:

March 22, 2012 at 8:59 pm

REALLY?

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1. Fidel's dirt nap says:
  
  March 22, 2012 at 9:03 pm
  
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ArapaGOP says:

March 22, 2012 at 10:09 pm

What if Homeland Security approves the request? What if they find that thousands of noncitizens voted in 2010? What will you do then?

Since you don’t know what will happen, I suggest you shut up and wait for DHS to decide.

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1. Republican 36 says:
  
  March 22, 2012 at 10:38 pm
  
  Over the past fourteen months, Mr. Gessler has at different times publicly stated there are 10,000+ illegal aliens voting in Colorado; then he said 4,000+, then 600, then 106, then 6, then 550, then his spokesman about a week ago said Mr. Gessler has only alleged 6 and now we are back up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,500. Your correct when you say no one knows how the investigation Mr. Gessler has called for from Homeland Security will turn out but there is certainly plenty of evidence to suggest he simply doesn’t know what he is talking about. But one thing is crystal clear, he is willing to throw wild accusations around without offering any proof.
  
  By the way, why doesn’t he agree with the Mesa County clerk and recorder, a fellow Republican, and allow the clerks to review his list of 4,500? Assuming Homeland Security undertakes an investigation, wouldn’t that stand as a double check of that agency’s investigation? Or if DHS won’t conduct an investigation, we can all get to the bottom of this through the clerks good offices. I don’t understand why Mr. Gessler is so reluctant to have other public officials in Colorado verify his allegations. Do you? If I was in Mr. Gessler’s shoes, I’d be utilizing every available avenue to find the answer, including through the clerks.
  
  Surely, since he has 4,500 specific names, he has some evidence as to whether some of these people are illegal aliens who have registered to vote and who have voted.
  
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  1. RedGreen says:
    
    March 23, 2012 at 2:34 am
    
    I suggest you shut up and wait for DHS to decide.
    
    Because a vigorous debate about policy makes Arap nervous. And it’s unseemly when DHS knows things we don’t and yet hasn’t decided. Don’t you get it, R36?
    
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2. Phoenix Rising says:
  
  March 23, 2012 at 1:56 am
  
  He would have asked DHS before the new year began to start the investigation. This is just another stall tactic to avoid uttering the truth – that this isn’t a real issue.
  
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3. taterheaptom says:
  
  March 23, 2012 at 2:54 am
  
  Ha ha
  
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