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October 10, 2008 05:14 PM UTC

Coffman Denies Report On Registrations, Dems Agree

  • 24 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post reports:

Secretary of State Mike Coffman said today that a published report was “way off” in asserting that Colorado had purged almost 37,000 people from voter registration rolls.

At a press conference today to respond to a New York Times article which said that Colorado is one of six battleground states that may be illegally purging thousands of voters from registration rolls, Coffman said the story was inaccurate.

“I have no idea where they got the numbers from,” Coffman, a Republican, said.

The Times story said that some 37,000 people had been removed from voter registration rolls in the three weeks after July 21, exceeding the number of people who died or moved out of the state during the same period.

The story also said Colorado had seen a net loss of nearly 100,000 registered voters since 2004.

Coffman’s office presented data that only 14,049 voters had been removed from the rolls from July 21 through today…

Coffman did say, however, that in reviewing the duplicate voter registration records, it had come across 2,454 that had been canceled within 90 days of the election. [Pols emphasis]

The secretary of state said his office was seeking a legal opinion to see if those cancellations comply with federal law that prohibits canceling registrations 90 days before an election unless someone is dead or a felon.

Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, said her their voter data didn’t match up with the Times’, either. She said the party’s data shows that from July through September, there were some 12,000 people whose registrations were cancelled, including about 8,000 who died or moved out of state…

“I’m very concerned by a level of hysteria that seems to be rising as a result of the New York Times article,” Waak said. “That article was nor helpful to the state of Colorado.”

Frankly, the numbers we saw in the Times article seemed awfully high to us as well. That said, we’re curious to see how Coffman explains removing any voters within the 90-day cutoff, there’s nothing ambiguous about the law governing that. And the New York Times, for their part, is standing by their story:

When asked repeatedly for comment two days before the article was published, election officials in Colorado and Michigan did not respond. But on Thursday, they offered their own figures.

In Michigan, the elections director, Christopher Thomas, said the state had removed only about 11,000 voters from the rolls in August. The Times analysis, which was reviewed by two leading voting experts, found the number to be closer to 33,000.

Asked to make the purged files public so that The Times could compare them with the state records it used for its article, Mr. Thomas declined.

In Colorado, Mr. Coffman adamantly rejected The Times’s estimate of 37,000 voters taken off the roles in the three weeks after July 21. He said that the number of people removed from the rolls was about 14,000 and that most of them were people who had died or moved out of the state.

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24 thoughts on “Coffman Denies Report On Registrations, Dems Agree”

  1. was also alleging huge voter purges in Colorado, earlier this summer. He wrote a few diaries on it at DKos. Was it Palast? That doesn’t sound right, now that I am writing this. Anybody that frequents DKos will know the author.

    And again, many on Daily Kos questioned his statistics as he did not seem able to provide substantiated proof to back up her assertions about massive national voter purges.

    And Pols, can you explain about the 90 day cut off? I don’t know what that is or how it applies here. I’m assuming it means you can’t remove someone from a register 90 days before an election. Is it a state law? Federal law? And if so, how did Coffman get around that?  

    1. Several diarists got recommended diaries up at dKos.  Despite pleas and evidence presented by a respected NM diarist, myself, and several others, a lot of folks over there went ballistic over the “news”.

      There really were some purges earlier in the year – before the 90-day cutoff.  But as far as anyone can tell, they were all within the bounds of both the law and good intent.

      The 90 day limitation is, according to the original Times article, a Federal law – part of HAVA, I think.

      1. She’s a gem and she tried, unsuccessfully, to rein folks in. She provided quited a bit of evidence to the contrary.

        Thanks for the info on the 90 day limitation, Phoenix.  

  2. it’s denying new applications.  Many grassroots groups have been working like hell to sign up thousands of new voters.  How many legit new applications have been denied for exceedingly minor technical or even spurious reasons?  That’s a number I’d like to see b/c I have no idea what it is but I’m guessing it’s not insignificant.

    1. is throwing away applications that register as Republican.  They only submit Democrat ones.

      Those poor saps that registered Republican with an ACORN application.  I’d like to see their faces when they show up to vote only to be told they aren’t registered.

      Ha.  Obama gets the last laugh on them!!

      1. http://www.truthaboutdeception…

        A compulsive liar will resort to telling lies, regardless of the situation. Again, everyone lies from time to time (see, when lovers lie), but for a compulsive liar, telling lies is routine. It becomes a habit – a way of life.

        Simply put, for a compulsive liar, lying becomes second nature.

        Not only do compulsive liars bend the truth about issues large and small, they take comfort in it. Lying feels right to a compulsive liar. Telling the truth, on the other hand, is difficult and uncomfortable.

        And like any behavior which provides comfort and an escape from discomfort (i.e., alcohol, drugs, sex [politics]), lying can become addictive and hard to stop. For the compulsive liar, lying feels safe and this fuels the desire to lie even more.

      4. I have hesitated in revealing this on here, but I am currently working for the Denver Election Division as a temp to enter all of those forms they submit.

        I have seen LOTS of ACORN forms come through (but not as many as from the Obama campaign!) and they are a wide variety of party affiliations, including Republicans.

        Of course this is Denver, so the R’s are rather few and far between to begin with.

        1. Actually I believe that is one of the charges pending against ACORN in several states.  They get rid of registrations that will not help them and their candidate.

          Obama gave them 750K from his campaign.  Hmmm  wonder who they are working for?

          2. Most of the registration workers with the Obama campaign aren’t working for anyone – they’re volunteers.

            And just to put this whole argument to bed (at least here in Colorado)…  Anyone filling out a voter registration form in Colorado to be submitted by a third party (like ACORN or the Obama campaign) is given a receipt that is detached from the form.  The receipt includes information to identify the registration collector, and there are stiff penalties for failure to turn in registration forms in a timely manner.

    2. over the checkbox issue. However, the county contacted the registrant and had him verify that he didn’t have a driver’s license, and it’s all sorted out.

      While the technicality thing is an extra hurdle for some new registrants (who may not all follow through to fix it), it does appear to be standard practice to let the registrant fix it even after the registration deadline has passed. So they’re not just denying applications.  

      1. about denying for things like this as long as people are given the opportunity to correct.  Well trained voter registration volunteers should try to make damn sure the “t”s are crossed, “i”s dotted but they can’t catch everything and stuff like this happens.  Can only speak for my county (Arapahoe) but the Dem party has had a good relationship with R election officials here and haven’t had any major problems, none that were the result of anything questionable.

      2. Since I was away when the whole checkbox thing came out, I wasn’t terribly aware of any follow-ups.

        I was hoping the clerks would do what they regularly do with improperly completed forms and work to correct the form rather than just rejecting it.  Good to hear that’s happening at least some places.

        2. I’m getting tired of having to sort through your bullshit.

          I hardly ever say anything, but do like to read what others say. You are ruining that. Are you a Republican Troll assigned to ColoradoPols?

          Don’t you have something better to do with yourself? You really have an addiction, you know.

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