Some in Larimer unregister to vote rather than send feds their information

Saja Hindi , shindi@coloradoan.com
Published 5:47 p.m. MT July 7, 2017 | Updated 7:53 p.m. MT July 7, 2017



44 states have now declined to release any of the requested data or provide limited information to Donald Trump’s commission on vote fraud. Wochit

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Sixty-three voters in Larimer County withdrew their voter registrations and 74 paid a fee to make their information confidential June 30 through Friday.

Larimer County has 231,480 active voters and 19,284 inactive, as of June 30.

While exact estimates of those who unregistered in prior years are not available, Larimer County Clerk Angela Myers said they're not frequent.

Only 45 voters paid to make their information confidential in 2016, 32 in 2015 and 22 this year prior to June 30.
So, why the big increase?

On June 28, all secretary of state offices received a letter that the Trump administration wants them to hand over voter records to a newly created Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

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And that has some voters worried.

A letter from the vice chair of the commission, Kris Kobach, stated the commission is charged with "studying the registration and voting processes used in federal elections and submitting a report to the President of the United States that identifies laws, rules, policies, activities, strategies, and practices that enhance or undermine the American people's confidence in the integrity of federal election processes."

The commission was ostensibly formed via executive order to look into the president's claim that 3 million voters illegally voted in the 2016 election.

The League of Women Voters has called the commission an attempt at "voter suppression."

Others such as Fort Collins resident Gary Clark said while they can't prove whether or not it's voter suppression, they don't trust what the government is going to do with their information.

Clark and his wife went to the Larimer County elections office Thursday, paid the $5 fee per application, and made their voter information confidential — information that would otherwise be public.

The form states that the applicant, under penalty of perjury, believes that he or she or a member of their family "will be exposed to criminal harassment, or otherwise be in danger of bodily harm, if my address is not kept confidential."

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Clark, an unaffiliated voter, said in addition to his belief that the commission is collecting the information "for a bogus reason," he doesn't know what the commission is going to do with his information — and that's worrisome.

Removing his information from the public system is not just a form of protest, but is about the lack of trust on what will happen to that information, Clark said. He points to how no other president or White House administration has asked for similar information.

"Why are they collecting this stuff?" Clark asked. "I think it's bogus, and I'm not sure what the motives are," he said, adding that the claim of illegal voters has been proven untrue.

League of Women Voters president Chris Carson said in a statement that there's no justification for "this giant fishing expedition."

"The Commission itself is a distraction from the real issue of voter suppression, and that efforts to 'investigate voter fraud' threaten our most fundamental voting rights," he wrote.

Carson continued by saying it was apparent Kobach and the commission were not interested in facts but "false accusations and dangerous policy recommendations."

Nancy Crow, the League's Colorado president, said the agency doesn't believe voter fraud is a prevalent issue in the United States unlike voter suppression.

Across the country, legislatures have passed laws that encourage voter suppression from limiting voting times to requiring photo identification, she said, making it more difficult for people to vote.

And that's the opposite of what the league and others interested in democracy want, Crow contends, especially with such a low percent of eligible voters taking part in elections — about 55 percent voting in 2016, according to national data.

"We have lower voter participation than most other thriving democracies," Crow said.

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The commission's efforts, she fears, could make that number dip even lower.

She points to the constitution as an additional reason not to pursue this commission's work — elections are conducted by states individually, and nothing in the Constitution requires the federal government to manage that.

Myers said she and other county clerks received notification from the Colorado Secretary of State's Office that voter information in the statewide system by 8 a.m. July 14 will be sent to the commission.

That means voters who plan to unregister or make their information confidential have until the end of the business day July 13 in Larimer County.

Withdrawing a registration can be done online, though it has to be completed with enough time for county staff members to process it. Making information confidential must be completed in person.

Additionally, a person could go to Myers' office and request their phone number and email address be removed from a voter list free of charge.

Myers warns voters who have made their information confidential or who have unregistered, however, that their information may remain on other lists previously created — it's public information that anyone can request, as candidates often do during election cycles.

And, if a person unregisters and then reregisters, their voting history will show up under the same registration number.

While some states have refused to provide their voters' information to the federal government, Secretary of State Wayne Williams' office is providing the public information portions of the voter records.

That doesn't include social security or drivers' license numbers, months and dates of birth or who a person voted for in an election.

In addition to providing that information, each secretary of state's office was asked to answer some questions about recommendations for election laws, securities and vulnerabilities, elections integrity, voter fraud, election-related crimes and preventing voter intimidation and disenfranchisement.

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And if there's anything Colorado voters can take away from that, said Ben Schler, Colorado Secretary of State's Office legal and internal operations manager in the elections division, it's that "people in Colorado should be proud of their election processes and any response from the Secretary of State won't do anything but champion that."

As far as criticism Colorado has received for turning over the information, despite other states' refusal, Schler said each state's laws have to be taken into consideration.

Plus, he said, with more investigation, people will find out that most states are providing some information, but the tone of the responses may be different.

"We have received a lot of phone calls and a lot of emails from folks who are just concerned about what's going on, and we've just been trying to make sure they understand we're only providing what's public and (data) required to be provided under the (state) law," he said.

"It was less of a decision and more of a fact that we are truly compelled under the law," he said.

The effort on the Secretary of State's Office's part is not partisan, Schler stressed, referencing the fact that people from "both sides of the aisle" have requested voter information for years.

The federal government, he said, probably has more information on individuals than the state has anyway, such as social security numbers that the state isn't providing.

In addition to the publicly available data, the responses to the other questions will only tout Colorado's status as one of the top states in the country with its election processes "with every reasonable metric possible," Schler said.

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