DENVER – More than 3,700 Coloradans withdrew from the state’s voter registry as of Friday and another 200 have asked to be added to the confidential voter program, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
The 3,738 withdrawals represent roughly one-tenth of 1 percent of the total 3.7 million voters still registered by the state. The withdrawals come in response to a federal request for voter information in an investigation of voter fraud.
The request asked for voter names, addresses, party affiliation, voter history – which include what years a voter cast a ballot but not what they voted for – and, if available, Social Security Numbers and dates of birth, which are not publicly available under Colorado law and would not be provided by the state.
The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity asked the state to provide the information by July 14. However, many states, including Colorado, held off on providing the information because of a pending lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
The commission was created via executive order in May to investigate President Donald Trump’s claims that millions of fraudulent votes caused him to lose the popular vote in November to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
While the request has been postponed, the voter information had been gathered by July 14, so any additional confidential voter requests or withdrawals will not affect the information sent to the voter fraud commission, if the lawsuit is resolved.
Of the 3,738 withdrawals and 200 confidential voter requests, the majority was from registered Democrats: 2,037 and 104, respectively.
The second largest number of requests came from unaffiliated voters: 1,255 withdrawals and 85 confidentiality requests.
Nine Republican-registered voters asked to be added to the confidential voters list, and 367 withdrew from the voter rolls. The remaining 79 withdrawals and two confidentiality requests came from members of minor political parties, such as the Green and Libertarian parties.
Election officials, including La Plata County Clerk and Recorder Tiffany Parker, have expressed concern with voters withdrawing from the voter registry, because they will not receive mail ballots for the November election unless they re-register.
“I’d just hate for people to give up their right to vote because they don’t want their information, which has already been public for years, to go out,” Parker said.
lperkins@durangoherald.com
