Colorado Sec. Of State Accidentally Sent 30K Voter Registration Postcards To Noncitizens

The Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) accidentally mailed about 30,000 voter registration postcards to noncitizens who are living in the state, encouraging them to register to vote and explaining how to do it. This reminds me a lot of PayPal ‘accidentally’ publishing a legally binding document that is meticulously combed by a team of lawyers and executives for months, or California state officials ‘accidentally’ releasing all the personal information about every single concealed carry permit holder in the entire state. Seems less like an ‘accident’ and more like an excuse after getting caught.

Newsflash–‘accidents’ like this aren’t usually really accidental.

This does wonders to bolster confidence in election integrity, doesn’t it? Knowing that your state officials might ‘accidentally’ send 30 THOUSAND voter registration notifications to people who aren’t even allowed to vote? What else might they ‘accidentally’ do? According to Colorado Public Radio News, who first reported the story,

“The postcards, which were printed in English and Spanish and read in part, ‘A message from Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’ inform the recipient ‘Our records indicate that you or your household may be eligible to vote, but do not appear to be registered at your current address.'”

A spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said,

“The Department has become aware that approximately 30,000 EBU [Eligible But Unregistered] postcard mailers were incorrectly sent to ineligible Coloradans. The office is undertaking an internal review of the incident and will take any corrective action that is warranted.”

The office claims the mistake occurred when they compared their DMV records to a list of 102,000 potential unregistered voters from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a multi-state nonprofit organization aimed at improving voter rolls and voter registration. The DMV records contain the information of non-citizens with driver’s licenses, which is legal in Colorado. Supposedly, it was a formatting error that failed to flag the individuals as ineligible to vote.

To rectify the situation, Griswold’s office said they are sending out another postcard “reminding them that only those meeting the above requirements are eligible to register,” which includes citizenship.

“The Department will also compare the list of approximately 30,000 individuals who incorrectly received the EBU mailer postcard to the statewide voter list on a daily basis to ensure none of those individuals register. County clerks refer illegal registrations to their local district attorney for review.”

They also assure the public that noncitizens who attempt to register are unable to do so, as though that makes up for the colossal mistake of sending 30K over registration postcards to ineligible voters. But let’s just say for a minute that a formatting error really did send 30K voter registration postcards to ineligible voters, but it was never caught and they were never forced to take accountability for the mistake and work to rectify it. What’s to say a ‘formatting error’ doesn’t ‘accidentally’ allow those noncitizens to actually register to vote? Do you have the confidence that that wouldn’t ever happen?

Here’s Griswold talking to MSNBC about how Colorado has “the best elections in the nation” because “they’re secure, they’re accessible.”