An election watchdog group is seeking more information about why Colorado sent 30,000 postcards to noncitizens, inviting them to register to vote.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold admitted Monday that her office sent out the notices and called it an error that she is trying to address.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation announced Wednesday that it has made an inspection request to Griswold’s office under the National Voter Registration Act for documents specifying how the office filters out noncitizens from receiving such notices, how the office caught the error, and listing noncitizens who were sent the postcards.
“Noncitizens cannot register to vote,” J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, said in a prepared statement. “We have asked Colorado to document instances where the checks they presumably have in place to prevent aliens from registering actually worked. If we don’t receive the documents we requested, we will exercise rights under federal law.”
The Public Interest Legal Foundation previously filed a lawsuit against the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office for failing to permit inspection of voter list maintenance records, including data that the state receives from the nonprofit Electronic Registration Information Center, also known as ERIC, about deceased registrants still on the voter rolls.
Like other states involved in the Washington, D.C.-based ERIC, Colorado is required to send postcards to eligible but nonregistered voters as part of its membership.
A spokesperson for Griswold’s office did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment from The Daily Signal for this report.
However, the office issued a statement to Colorado Public Radio, which first reported the matter Monday.
“The department has become aware that approximately 30,000 EBU [Eligible but Unregistered] postcard mailers were incorrectly sent to ineligible Coloradans,” said an unidentified spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. “The office is undertaking an internal review of the incident and will take any corrective action that is warranted.”
The spokesperson told Colorado Public Radio that the office is sending out another notice to ineligible individuals, “reminding them that only those that meet the above requirements are eligible to register.”
“The department will also compare the list of approximately 30,000 individuals who incorrectly received the EBU mailer postcard to the statewide voter list on a daily basis to ensure none of those individuals register,” the spokesperson said. “County clerks refer illegal registrations to their local district attorney for review.”
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