By Brady Knox
Colorado’s top election official says 30,000 voter registration notices were sent to noncitizens — accidentally.
Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office blamed the error on a glitch, saying the mix-up occurred when department employees compared a list of 102,000 names provided by the Electronic Registration Information Center with a database of Coloradans issued driver’s licenses, including noncitizens who were issued special licenses, according to the Associated Press.
“The Department has become aware that approximately 30,000 EBU [Eligible But Unregistered] postcard mailers were incorrectly sent to ineligible Coloradans,” a spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office told Colorado Public Radio. “The office is undertaking an internal review of the incident and will take any corrective action that is warranted.”
Griswold’s office stressed that noncitizens who received the postcards would not have been able to register if they tried and added that notices are being sent out to those affected. However, the incident opened Griswold up to some criticism, especially in light of election integrity questions raised after the 2020 election. “Jena Griswold continues to make easily avoidable errors just before ballots go out,” Colorado Republican Party Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown said in a statement.
One of Griswold’s defenders argued the incident showed the system is working. “It should show, first of all, that mistakes can happen, but secondly that there are checks in place to make sure mistakes don’t result in disaster,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Voting Rights Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
Griswold is running for reelection and is facing GOP rival Pam Anderson next month in the general election.