Tag: Advancement Project

Thousands of purged Colorado voters have no clue that they've been removed from the state's rolls. And that could make for some dramatic scenarios on Election Day tomorrow when would-be registered voters are denied a regular ballot at the polls.

A federal judge took a swipe at an "obdurate" Secretary of State Mike Coffman this afternoon by ordering Colorado's top election official to stop violating federal law by purging voters. The Advancement Project, a voter protection organization, filed suit against Coffman late last week for canceling as many 30,000 voters within 90 days of the federal election, a breach of the National Voter Registration Act. Coffman's office settled with the Advancement Project late Wednesday evening, agreeing to let purged individuals vote by provisional ballot. But he has purged an additional 146 voters since then.

It's not over yet. With Election Day just around the bend, questions about Colorado's ability to pull off the big event have only mounted in recent days. Over the past two weeks, the Colorado Independent has published a Friday digest of the most important election administration news of that week. We've steered you through all sorts of wreckage: county clerks defying Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman in accepting incomplete voter registrations, Coffman admitting that he purged thousands of voters from the state rolls, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink trying to stop students from registering, and on and on and on.

Voting rights advocates entered into a shaky truce late Wednesday with Secretary of State Mike Coffman's office over his allegedly illegal purge of 30,000 voters in Colorado. The Advancement Project, a national voter protection group, filed suit against Coffman late last week to force the secretary to reinstate the voters and halt any new purges. Coffman's removals included people who moved, inactive citizens, and newly registered individuals whose voter cards bounced back to county clerks. The Advancement Project claimed that Coffman's removals violated the National Voter Registration Act because they occurred within 90 days of a federal election. Coffman denied any wrongdoing.

Thousands of Coloradans have been denied the right to vote because of a policy that may violate federal law. Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman has authorized county clerks to purge newly registered voters under the so-called 20-day rule. Here, county clerks must send non-forwardable letters to newly registered voters. If the mail bounces back to the clerks, then they must remove the voter applicants' names from the rolls.

On Saturday, the Advancement Project, a national voter protection organization, filed suit against Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman for his alleged illegal purge of tens of thousands of voters across the state.