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Alarming, but false

National news story misstates facts in Colorado

Rocky Mountain News

Published October 10, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Let's hope The New York Times' reporting on voter registration is more accurate in other states than Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman and state Democratic Party Chairman Pat Waak say it was about Colorado. Otherwise, the Times may fuel unwarranted fears about the integrity of the November election.

Many if not all states have adopted new technologies to satisfy the federal National Voter Registration Act and Help America Vote Act, and a record turnout is likely for this election. Officials face unprecedented pressure to assure voters of the reliability and accuracy of the process. Without that confidence, Americans may lose trust in the ability of officials to conduct honest elections.

Coffman and Waak separately questioned a story the Times published Thursday suggesting that election officials in Colorado and five other swing states have illegally purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from registration rolls. If that's true, as the Times said, "people who have been removed from the roll are likely to show up [at the polls] only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers."

Goodness knows, Coloradans have experienced their share of confusion, long lines and heated tempers during recent elections. The question raised by the Times is whether states have been following the law as they make sure registration rolls are accurate when people vote.

We have no idea how diligently other states have enforced the law. But since the Times report is based on estimates from Social Security Administration databases and not the state's actual voting rolls, we're siding with Coffman - whose job it is to maintain registration records - and Waak, who tracks those figures separately.

The law says states cannot "systematically remove" voters from the rolls within 90 days of an election unless they die, move out of state or aren't eligible to vote for some other reason.

According to the Times, Social Security records show that Colorado "purged" 37,000 people from voter rolls in the three weeks after July 21, when only 7,500 died or moved out of state during that period. Why that date was chosen is a puzzle, because the 90-day clock started running in early August.

Nonetheless, Coffman - who said the Times never spoke to him before Thursday - ran numbers from SCORE, the state's electronic voter database, and found that counties removed only 14,000 voters from the rolls since July 21. And with the exception of 2,454 names that were entered in the database twice, he said all those voter records were canceled legally - 6,572 people moved, 1,145 died, 544 were felons and the rest were either duplicates, noncitizens, withdrawals or filled out incomplete applications that couldn't be verified.

Waak said her records suggest about 12,000 voters should have been removed from July through September.

The Times also asserted that Colorado "purges" registration records. That's inaccurate, state election division manager William Browning said. When a voter record is removed from active status, for whatever reason, that person can still show up on Election Day, vote using a provisional ballot and then demonstrate he was wrongly removed from the rolls.

Coffman will ask Attorney General John Suthers to rule on whether the 2,454 duplicate names would have to stay on the rolls. We hope Suthers concludes that the answer is no. For elections to be fair, the principle of one person, one vote must have meaning.

Comments

  • October 10, 2008

    8:51 a.m.

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    rickg19611 writes:

    New York Times got it wrong? Where is the news in that?

  • October 10, 2008

    9:02 a.m.

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    Spencer writes:

    You're assuming that Americans trust officials to have an honest election now.

  • October 10, 2008

    9:26 a.m.

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    Cwillyrun1 writes:

    The NY Times rates right up there with the National Enquirer. It's not to tell the truth, it's to sell a sensational headline and story to get people to buy papers and read their garbage.

    Hey spencer, I'm wondering if the people in Chicago trust the voting process. The most politically corrupt big city in America, at least it has been in the past, very big Democrat stronghold (those corrupt politics), and coincidentally Obama's from Chicago.

  • October 10, 2008

    10:06 a.m.

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    Marshdale writes:

    Cwillyrun: Nice try, but the conservatives have been trying to dig up dirt on Obama for several years now, and all they can find is some loose link to a guy he sat on a board with to help raise money for the needy, and some guy who made a small campaign contribution, wheras your candidate has so many skeletons in his closet they can't bury them deep enough any more.

  • October 10, 2008

    11:08 a.m.

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    Ofearghail writes:

    I run a translation services company in Ukraine. Last year I assigned several of my people to work with international election observers who came to make sure that Ukraine's parlimentary elections were fair and honest. Elections in third-world and other developing countries (like those of the former Soviet Union) are often watched by international observers. Their job is to look for curruption, irregularities, fraud, etc. Their general opinion was that - despite the rampant corruption in the government - the elections were quite fair and honest.

    It seems that we will need to have international election observers come to the U.S. now, as the country cannot be trusted on its own to hold fair and democratic elections. The notorious left-wing organization, Acorn, is already being investigated for gross voter registration fraud in at least six states. Other allegations of voter fraud are springing up across the country, almost all associated with Democrats.

    It seems that the Democrats are falling back on their old "Chicago Principles" of stealing elections by "voting early and voting often." And they are relying on subversive partners like Acorn to do their dirty work for them. I wonder how many votes Obama will get from the "dead community" in this election?

    I never thought I would see the day when Ukraine can run cleaner elections than the United States.

  • October 10, 2008

    11:17 a.m.

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    daRock writes:

    I don't understand why removing duplicate registrations would be a problem. No voter is being purged, just cleaning up a clerical error.
    Just send it to the Redundant department of redundancy.

  • October 10, 2008

    11:41 a.m.

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    bxwatso writes:

    also, the times assumes that every voter purge would have voted Democrat, which may or may not be true.

  • October 10, 2008

    1:32 p.m.

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    SteelersFan writes:

    How about this....you show up to vote, with a photo id in hand, the election officials then verify that you are who you say you are, and then you go and vote. If there is a problem, you can cast a provisional ballot, and if you are eligible to vote in the particular precinct where you showed up, your provisional ballot can be counted. This ain't rocket science, people. Of course, groups like ACORN would lose out on a lot of money for their cause if something like this were to happen, so they cry racism and try and intimidate their way in a very fascist like fashion into getting what they want. The idea of a photo id to vote is not rascist, it is common sense.

    If I were to show up at the liquor store to buy a 6-pack without my id, they wouldn't sell it to me. Why doesn't it work like that for something important like an election?

  • October 10, 2008

    2:23 p.m.

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    NavyChief writes:

    If the Times was really concerned about voter issues, they would address all the voter fraud being conducted by ACORN. I read an article today about one guy they had register to vote 72 times. They are being investigated in multiple states right now by the FBI for voter fraud. Seems as though they have been giving cash or cigarettes in order to convince people to register multiple times. Last time I checked, it is liilegal to regiser to vote more than once. Wonder just who all these fake voters are going to cast their votes to?

    But the ACORN is affiliated with the Demoratic Party, and is therefore without blame or accountability.

  • October 10, 2008

    8:26 p.m.

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    Sweetpickle writes:

    If our election officials do a good job none of this matters.

  • October 11, 2008

    8:03 a.m.

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    Shadow writes:

    Sounds to me like very good arguments to make it the law to show identification when you vote. Its harder to rent at blockbusters then vote in Colorado.

    As for it being a one party problem, lets face facts the Democrats do have a bigger history of it then the republicans. Johnsons discovered voting ballots after the election in Texas, Daly in Chicago, now this acorn thing. When most of the new registrations are in the democratic party. It tnds to make one think it is a democratic party problem.

  • October 11, 2008

    8:51 a.m.

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    jwbeuk writes:

    ACORN = Obama.

    The NY Times story is nothing more than an attempt to change the subject. Seems like every time another Obama issue comes up the major media outlets put out another bogus, inaccurate story. ACORN and the Obama campaign are tied at the hip and the NY Times knows it.

  • October 12, 2008

    8:01 a.m.

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    crewislife writes:

    First of all, give it a rest on the ACORN tripe. ACORN is an organization that strives to give an electoral voice to the poor and the disenfranchised. The question is now whether Barack Obama supports ACORN, rather, why don't you? I know exactly why. Being a mouth-breathing "ditto-head" you have no idea how to do your own research, and think for yourself. You'd rather have your ideas and your talking points dissemiated to you by people who could care less about you, or the country.

    Secondly, why should the citizens of Colorado trust Mike Coffman? What has he done to prove that he has NOT eliminated thousands from the voter rolls? Nothing that's what. A simple Google news search will pull up thousands and thousands of articles, all from reputable news outlets, regarding election fraud happening in every single "swing state". I for one am happy that the NY Times pointed out what is happening. Maybe now Mike Coffman and the state GOP will allow citizens to exercise their rights.

  • October 12, 2008

    9:48 a.m.

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    KelcyCo writes:

    I don`t trust the US government to run a fair election no matter what. As a whole they have proven to be unethical and untrustworthy. Sad commentary on Americans these days.