Tipping the Scales -- Up to 10,000 Registrations Deemed Incomplete in Colorado

The crucial swing state of Colorado is the latest state in which some voters might not be able to cast a ballot because of a technical mistake they made when registering to vote. Colorado's Secretary of State Mike Coffman, the state's top election official and a Republican, has deemed over 6,000 voter registration forms incomplete. Steve Fenburg of New Era Colorado estimates that there may be as many as 10,000.

Adrian Herrera is a 25-year-old art major who was excited to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

"Basically I registered to vote when I started to work for the SEIU and I was told to put the last four digits of my Social Security Number inside the identification box ...I thought everything was good until I was told my registration was not valid," said Herrera.

Herrera is one of the estimated 10,000 people whose registration forms were deemed incomplete and therefore invalid because they used their Social Security Numbers as identification yet didn't check a box to indicate they don't have a Colorado driver's license or state ID number.

Progressive groups want Coffman to process the registration forms.

Rich Coolidge, a media spokesperson for the Secretary of State's office, says there are no plans to do so.

"At this point our office won't be able to do that. The county clerks are not able to do that because the law is the law and our office and the county clerks have to abide to state and federal law."

Coolidge added that the county clerks are in the process of notifying voters. Voters who are unaware of the contested status of their registration can still cast a provisional ballot at the polls.

"The secretary is encouraging everyone to show up if they aren't registered and they didn't get this incomplete status corrected, they can still [cast] a provisional ballot. I know there are some myths that the provisional ballots are not counted. That is just not the case...the traditional ballots are verified...and then counted."

Donna Davis, Project Director of the African-American Voter Registration and Information Project says "it is difficult for new voters since it requires the voter to present him or herself at the county clerk's office after the election to file paperwork and prove they are the person on the ballot. Provisional ballots are usually not counted until a week after the election and often are subject to challenges. Also of note is that of the almost 2 million provisional ballots that were cast in 2004, a little more than a million were actually deemed valid."

Dusti Gurule, an organizer for the nonprofit group Latina Initiative, said, "The provisional ballot process is not just another form of the ballot... There is a process of verification that [takes place]...That's a whole other step for someone who does not have to time to drop their ballot off...it's not as easy as they say it is."

To further complicate the issue, voter registration groups say that the representatives from the Secretary of State's office who trained them to register voters did not inform them to advise their canvassers to be sure to check the box in question.

Steve Fenburg helped register voters for the nonprofit group New Era Colorado.

"The issue of the check boxes was never raised and in some of these trainings was never even discussed. In the [training] I was in they actually told to us that [the voter] can use either and if they have a driver's license not to check the box."

The Secretary of State's office denies this.

"Our staff was very clear with the laws and the people who did the training have assured [us] that this was part of the training," said Coolidge.

The latest CNN Poll of Polls shows Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama leading his Republican rival John McCain by seven points in Colorado, a crucial swing state. In a close race 10,000 popular votes out of 100,000 people newly registered in Colorado can make the difference when it comes to the Electoral College which, in the end, determines the outcome of the presidential race.

Gurule says the people most affected by the disqualified registration forms are mostly first-time voters who tend to be college students and minorities.

"In the communities where we do our work, primarily low income [areas with] people of color, there is a lot of energy regarding this election so a lot more people are wanting to register and get engaged and get involved," she said. "By deductive reasoning, I guess you can assume this is going to disproportionally impact some of these folks who are not traditionally involved in politics."

Davis says that the Secretary of State's decision not to process the contested registration forms is a violation of federal election law.

"It is a violation of federal law, specifically, a direct violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1971. ..which says no person acting under the color of law shall deny the right of any person to vote in an election because of an error or omission on any record or paper relation to any application, registration or other act requisite to voting, if such error or omission is not material in determining whether a person is qualified under State law to vote in an election... refusing to allow the registration of these voters without further process is a direct violation of their rights. The eligibility of these voters is not challenged; they simply made an immaterial omission in neglecting to check a box."

Colorado's governor, Democrat Bill Ritter, sent a letter to the Secretary of State's office last week calling for a timely resolution of the matter.

"The law [states] that the [Secretary of State] has the ability to cure the problem until election day and we're finding ways to utilize communication devices to make sure people know that...We are really trying to work with the Secretary of State to [fix the situation]. I do think they understand that they were mistaken and have [made] some efforts to cure it. If that means that I keep talking about it [on] the airwaves, that's what it means." Ritter said.

A week before the election, Secretary of State Coffman has stood firm in his refusal not to process the contested ballots. New Era Colorado has posted the Secretary of State's list of incomplete registrations on their website. Whether the estimated 10,000 people who were affected will be able to vote by election day remains to be seen.

Comments

[Purple hazeY]

*** I did not read all 7+ pages of comments, so if this is already discussed, forgive the repetition:

1- Several lawsuits have been filed to force the secretary of state to accept the contested registrations, it was working its way through the courts even today...

2-The secretary of state is elected in Colorado, not appointed, Mike Coffman was elected in 2006.

3-Mike Coffman is also running for the US 6 district in Colorado against Hang Eng
*** http://www.hankeng.com *** and has not allowed for additional safeguards to ensure that no funny stuff occurs with regard to his vote.

As of 10/28 the race is dead even between the two.

Support Hang Eng and send Coffman packing!

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

This needs to be top headline news tomorrow all across America

Votors need to know who the Republicans really are.

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

The Horror is back again.

Don't let them steal three in a row.

[westernvoter]

We have had so many problems with Coffman as Secretary of State in Colorado. These are just the most recent ones. And, he is currently running for a seat in Congress. So this isn't just about the presidential race. It's also about getting himself elected.

However, I've been noticing something in the last couple of days and I'd like to know if others in Colorado are noticing the same thing. It seems to me that there has been an absolute explosion of Obama bumper stickers and yard signs recently. Has anyone else noticed that? I hope it's not just me because it is really giving me hope.

By the way, to those of you not in our state. At two weekend rallies in the state, Obama drew 100,000 people in Denver (the largest crowd ever except for when the Broncos won the Super Bowl) and 45,000 in Ft. Collins. Ft. Collins has a population of about 130,000. So there is some good news from Colorado.

Now if we could just get rid of our Secretary of State -- and NOT by sending him to Congress!

[Gma11]

More Republican voter suppression - surprise, surprise!

[MuchMadness]

We are getting to the point where we need foreigners to observe our elections to make sure they are fair.
Any Canadian volunteers?

[alteregoess]

We had them in 2004:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/08/international.observers/index.html

Too bad they weren't in Ohio...

[thefooligan5]

I definitely would. I'm not sure I would make it through customs in time to help :P

The possibility of this election being stolen once again is becoming more and more plausible. I'm terrified and I am not even American.

[Amalek]

The work would be too dangerous. Some of those republican poll gorillas can get quite violent.

[betabeta]

We can send a man to the moon but we can't gt the voting process together..­. makes my stomach turn

[salsmom]

Take Coffman to court - get a court to rule on whether the check box is material to voter intent.

[ktl9076]

I worked with MoveOn.org in Colorado and took the class at the Secretary of State's office to be trained on the voter registration forms. There was never a mention of these boxes and the possibility of people who wrote only the 4 digits of their social security number and didn't check the license box to receive provisional ballots. We found out about this blatant attempt at voter caging only three days before the registration deadline. Seeing that the Secretary of State of CO is extremely conservative, this was a clear massive suppression of voters and it is a shame that the Democratic process for so many people failed because of a small, unexplained discrepancy due to a lack of explanation from the Sec of State's office.

[jazzman]

There's a goddam Republican behind everyone of these voter suppression efforts. This is one of the biggest reasons we need to get them out of power this election. They aren't just the wrong Party. They're an anti-American and anti democracy Party. I'm not sad, I'm really really angry. This is unacceptable and it's going to ultimately bring our country to the brink of civil war if we don't find a way to stop these practices. We've allowed our nation to be run like a banana Republic and every election it gets more blatant and is more readily accepted.

[McFlipFlop]

Agreed. Time to put folks who try to disenfranchise voters in jail.

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

Agreed. Treason

[aybabtu]

Where is Obama's army of lawyers to drag this partisan secretary of state into federal court?!?!

[Cville2008]

They're are fighting for us. But isn't it our fault that we are this close to the election and surprise problems, problems, machines changing dem votes to re pug votes, people are being purged off the list and other caging crap. I don't understand why it's at the last minute we're finding out about this. Why haven't these problems been fixed and why doesn't the Secretary of State, Coffman know the law- why haven't' the state attorney''s office informed him what the law is. I mean these people are supposed to know the law.

[zg1968]

This is so ridiculous. Election procedures should be federally mandated to prevent this kind of garbage. Everyone in the country should have the same process, not 50 different ones. Your right to vote should be determined by your citizenship, not if you checked a box.

[Teutonicus]

a country that can't even organize a general election and can't guarantee that every citizen over the age of 18 can cast a vote, is a BANANA REPUBLIC. What a joke the US is... Send somebody to Europe and study how to organize flawless elections. There live more than 350 Million people and voting problems are unheard of.

[mcha]

I don't get this, Don't we have a Democrat Governor in Colorado?

What is the Obama campaign doing? is it just sitting on it's ass while this is going on?

[amluvinit2]

We do in fact have a democratic governor. Bill Ritter, I am not happy with his comments.

[jkingler]

I'm not usually a fan of litigation, but if this isn't resolved in a hurry, the Obama camp needs to get on this and sue - no joke. Last minute lamentations don't serve the dems well, as evidenced by recent history.

[mcha]

Whay in F*ck Does a Democrat governor appoint a Republican secretary of state? especially one that is running for congress?

what the hell is going on with Colorado?

[juzcuz]

better not be sitting on their ass... I'm furious about this and hope the entire Obama group is... fight for this unfairness. How many other states are going to come up with these kinds of problems, all of a sudden. Do something governor of Colorado and anybody else who can do somethiing!!

[McFlipFlop]

"All told, states reported scrubbing at least 10 million voters from their rolls on questionable grounds between 2004 and 2006. Colorado holds the record: Donetta Davidson, the Republican secretary of state, and her GOP successor oversaw the elimination of nearly one of every six of their state's voters. Bush has since appointed Davidson to the Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency created by HAVA, which provides guidance to the states on 'list maintenance' methods."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/23638322/block_the_vote/print

[GirlsRule]

This is pathetic. When I first moved to Florida I registered at the DMV. I was instructed by the clerk at the DMV of what to do. And accepted my application. I even received a voter registration card. When I went to vote in the Primaries they told me my application was incomplete. Mind you they Sent me a Registration Card. Never before in my life had I ever had a problem. That was in 2004 . THIS CAN HAPPEN TO ANY OF US!

[curly2]

Similar story to my husband voting in the PA primaries. In his case, we had moved cities. He had changed his driver's license and registered to vote in our new area. The voter registration card came, no problem. When he went to vote for Obama in the primaries, his voter card did not match the address on file for him at the DMV (they had an address that was 6 years old, go figure, even though he had a new license which clearly stated his new address) and he couldn't vote.

Now, I had filled out the same forms as he when we had moved, and I could vote, so this was obviously really a clerical error and not some form of suppression. This time we're bringing multiple forms of ID, mail addressed to our homes, our voting registration card and the hotline number. We're ready.