Thread: Gessler Has Tools in Colorado Bill to Find Illegal Voters

Gessler already has tools sought in Colorado bill to find illegal voters.

By Nancy Lofholm

The Denver Post

Posted: 04/07/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

Updated: 04/07/2011 02:43:45 PM MDT

For a month now, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler has testified before the state General Assembly and Congress that thousands of noncitizens may have voted in the state's last general election.

"After an initial investigation of Colorado's voter database, we know we have a problem with possible noncitizens on the voter rolls," Gessler told a congressional committee last week. "We do not know how big the problem is, and we believe we lack the tools to efficiently handle the problem."

But Gessler, who arrived at a number of potential noncitizen voters by comparing driver's license records with voter registrations, does have the tools. He has chosen not to use them.

Gessler is pressing for passage of House Bill 1252, a bill that could be heard on the floor of the Colorado House as soon as today.

The bill would require the secretary of state to compare information in the statewide computerized voter registration system against other state and federal records to determine citizenship status of registered voters. It also would spell out what actions his office could take to remove illegal voters from the rolls.

Gessler's spokesman acknowledged Wednesday that nothing in state law currently prevents the secretary of state's office from doing such a comparison to contact those voters and determine for certain whether noncitizens have voted.

Seeking a clear mandate:

"It would not be difficult for us to identify those voters at this time. But we haven't done it," said Rich Coolidge, the spokesman for Gessler. "The secretary would prefer to have clear statutory authority for this."

The office declined a request by The Denver Post to provide the names of the 4,947 people Gessler told Congress may have been noncitizens when they voted in November. He also declined to provide The Post or Mesa County Clerk Sheila Reiner any data on the 106 people he told Congress "we are nearly certain . . . are improperly registered to vote."

Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss., called Gessler's report "shocking." Reiner said that if any illegal voters are in her county, she just wants to remove them as soon as possible from the rolls.

Gessler arrived at his numbers by obtaining the driver's license numbers for people who acknowledged that they were noncitizens but proved they were lawfully in the United States when they sought and received the licenses.

He then compared those license numbers to driver numbers contained on voter registrations and found 11,805 people who were not citizens when they got their licenses but later registered to vote.

Of that number, 4,947 voted in November. And 106 people, not all of whom voted, appear to have registered to vote even before they presented noncitizen documents to obtain driver's licenses, Gessler told Congress.

Gessler acknowledges that at least some of the 4,947 may have become citizens during the years between the time they got a driver's license and when they registered to vote, but he has taken no steps to contact them or use other available data to find out.

Still, what Gessler has presented is enough for El Paso County Clerk Wayne Williams. He was the only county clerk from Colorado to testify in the Colorado legislature in favor of HB 1252.

"We now have evidence there is an issue that needs to be looked at," Williams said.

Gessler's office has access by statute to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement records when checking the background of notaries. There is nothing in the statute that precludes Gessler's office from using those same records to check voters' citizenship status.

Gessler has requested clarification on whether his office can use those records from ICE, but Coolidge said ICE has not responded.

Gessler's testimony on Colorado's "problem" has raised doubts among immigrant advocates and Democrats, including Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas. Gonzales noted that Gessler's report was based on inconclusive data that likely wouldn't hold up in a court of law.

Big risk just to vote:

National studies have determined that voter fraud by noncitizens is not an issue because they do not want to risk a hefty fine, a 10-year prison term and deportation just so they can vote.

Democrats and immigrant advocates also have raised fears that laws requiring proof of citizenship to vote will disenfranchise some voters who may not have access to birth certificates or passports.

"It's targeting a particular class of people who quite frankly wouldn't vote if this passes," said Hans Meyer, policy director with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.

Nancy Lofholm: 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17789 ... z1IuUJOoVi

moving to new section for illegal alien and non-citizen voters