Advancement Project Sues Colorado Secretary Of State For Illegal Purge Of Voters
October 25
Press Release
Yesterday, Advancement Project, a national voter protection organization, and others filed a lawsuit on behalf of
Colorado Common Cause, Mi Familia Vota, a non-partisan civic engagement campaign, and Service Employees International
Union (SEIU) against Colorado Secretary of State, Mike Coffman, to challenge an illegal purges and cancellation
practices that apparently have removed between 16,000 and 30,000 voters from Colorado’s rolls.
“These purge programs violate a federal law that is intended to protect eligible voters from being swept off the rolls,"
said Penda Hair, co-director, Advancement Project. "The state admits engaging in these practices and purging thousands
of voters’ registration records without notice. We felt that filing this action was the only way we could ensure that
thousands of Colorado residents would not show up at the polls on Election Day only to find they could not participate
in this historic national election.”
Advancement Project is challenging two types of purging practices by the state as violations of the National Voting
Rights Act (NVRA).
First, Secretary Coffman has implemented a Colorado law requiring cancellation of new registrations when a
non-forwardable notice sent by mail to the voter is returned as undeliverable within 20 days of receipt of the
registration application. As recently determined by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Michigan, a state law mandating cancellation of new voter registrations because a mailed notice was returned as
undeliverable violates the NVRA and cannot be enforced. These 20-day cancellations have removed several thousand
eligible voters. Coffman has admitted, 1,136 of these voters were purged between July 21 and October 9. Moreover, his
records show that 3,291 of these voters have been purged since August 2007.
Second, in an action not required by any Colorado law, the Secretary of State has removed tens of thousands of voters
from the official voter rolls after August 4, 2008, in violation of the NVRA, which bans systematic removal of voters
from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election, except for narrowly specified reasons. Secretary Coffman issued a
statement on October 9, 2008 admitting that at least 12,000 voters have been purged from the rolls within this period
for reasons not permitted by the NVRA. More importantly, Advancement Project has substantial evidence that during the
NVRA’s 90 day no-purge period, defendant Secretary of State actually removed more than 20,000 voters’ registration
records from Colorado’s voting rolls, in addition to the 1,892 who were removed for the NVRA-allowed reasons because of
death, incarceration for a felony, or withdrawal.
The lawsuit asks the court to grant relief that would:
Discontinue purging any voters from the official list of eligible voters for any reason not allowed by the NVRA between
now and November 4, 2008;
Identify and reinstate any and all voters who were improperly purged from the official list of registered voters during
the 90 day no-purge period, except those exempted by the NVRA, and all voters disqualified through the illegal
cancellation procedure based on return of the single registration card.
ENDS