Thread: Scott Gessler, feds finalize deal to verify voters' citizenship - CO

Scott Gessler, feds finalize deal to verify voters' citizenship

By Sara Burnett
The Denver Post
08/25/2012 12:01:00 AM MDT

The Colorado secretary of state's office has finalized an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to use a federal database to determine whether there are noncitizens on the state's voter rolls — a victory more than a year in the making for Scott Gessler.

Last week, the Republican secretary of state sent letters to about 4,000
registered voters who at some point used a noncitizen identification card to get a Colorado driver's license. ( Gessler asks 4,000 prove eligibility or get off Colorado voter rolls - The Denver Post )

The letters asked those people to either remove themselves from the voter rolls or provide documentation that they have become U.S. citizens.

Gessler said in a statement Friday that his office will also begin comparing the list of about 4,000 to the federal database, known as the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program.

He also said his office will hold hearings before taking any action on any person who was mailed a letter and does not respond.

"I'm heartened by the cooperation of these individuals who either proudly displayed their naturalization papers or withdrew their registrations," Gessler said. "Each of these people helps improve the integrity of Colorado's voter rolls."

Critics of Gessler's actions say they are politically motivated attempts to discourage voters — many of them minorities — from going to the polls in November.

They also say the number of people who may be improperly registered probably isn't significant enough to risk intimidating eligible voters or improperly removing someone from the rolls.

Gessler counters that without conducting regular checks, there's no way to know what the extent of the problem is.

His office has been trying for more than a year to get the Department of Homeland Security to assist in those checks. After months of legal wrangling in other states and threats of a lawsuit from Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, the department agreed last month to assist Colorado with the verifications.

It took more than another month before the details of the agreement between Homeland Security and the state could be finalized.

Gessler's office is holding a public meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday to discuss the hearing process.

Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661, sburnett@denverpost.com or twitter.com/sara_burnett

Scott Gessler, feds finalize deal to verify voters' citizenship - The Denver Post

Gessler counters that without conducting regular checks, there's no way to know what the extent of the problem is.

Extend that to voter registrations where one only has to check the box "Are you a citizen?" yes. Without checking there is no evidence of IAs registering to vote. Yeah that old canard.