Colorado's Secretary Of State Sets The Record Straight On Voter Registration Postcards
(CBS4) - Secretary of State Jena Griswold is trying to clear up any confusion after a story by CBS4 about a voter registration mailing by her office.
"These mailings are really powerful. They get a lot of people registered in Colorado."
The mailing she's referring to says: "Our records indicate that you or a member of your household may be eligible to vote but do not appear to be registered at your current address." It goes on to delineate the qualifications to vote: 18 years of age, U.S. citizen and Colorado resident at least 22 days before the election.
As CBS4 reported last week, about a dozen of the postcards -- that we know of -- went to people who were not citizens or deceased.
Griswold says, "I think the key is that the mailing to encourage potentially unregistered people to register is not the same mailing as our ballot mailing. Those are two separate universes. When we send you a ballot or the county clerk sends out a ballot, those are to people who are registered. This postcard, encouraging people to register, goes to people who are potentially eligible but unregistered and, you know, the mailings aren't always 100% correct."
She says the mailing list is compiled by an outside organization, called the Electronic Registration Information Center, which uses DMV records and the Social Security Death Index to identify potentially eligible voters, "Because of this outreach, which started under Republican secretaries of state prior to my administration, we have one of the highest percentage of registered people in the nation and lead the nation in turnout."
Griswold says about 750,000 people received the postcard this year and she expects 75,000 of them will register to vote. She says the dozen or so people, who received the postcard but are ineligible to vote, will know that by reading the postcard, "The fact that the list, or the postcard, goes to a few people who are not eligible to be registered is why we put so prominently on the postcard the qualifications to vote in this election."
