The Denver Post wants voters to know it was stupidity, not conspiracy that prompted Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office to mail 30,000 voter registration postcards to noncitizens who could be deported for registering.
As Peak reported earlier, the mistake was caused by using lists from the DMV of citizens and non-citizens who hold drivers’ licenses.
The Post goes on to confirm that qualified residents are already automatically registered to vote when they obtain a drivers license, while non-residents are not registered to vote.
Anyone with half a brain would realize those lists would be invalid for voter registration purposes, because only the noncitizens were not registered to vote.
Only a complete idiot would use the lists to mail voter registration cards and then blame the mistake on the DMV for not including formatting information to eliminate the names of those not registered because they’re not citizens.
Yet that’s exactly what Griswold’s office did when the mailers were sent out Sept. 27, followed by another 30,000 mailers reminding those they urged to register to vote, make sure they were eligible to vote.
It turns out to be a very serious crime for noncitizens to register to vote, the Post goes on to explain.
And it (Secretary of State’s office) is applying several efforts to prevent or reject anyone not eligible to vote from registering, including comparing Social Security Numbers required for each application, on a daily basis. County clerks also will refer suspect cases to local district attorneys for review.
Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Voting Rights Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, also told The Post “There have been very few incidents of noncitizens attempting to register in the U.S. because the consequences are so severe — up to and including deportation.”
Griswold has not commented on her office’s mistake, or whether non-citizens who received her postcard will be deported if they attempt to register to vote.