Editorial: CO Secretary of State Gessler owes some apologies

[otohara]

The way in which Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler has attempted to rid the state's voter rolls of non-citizens has been controversial and disappointing.

Colorado should expect better.

Gessler sent letters to nearly 4,000 voters, calling their status into question, before he got access to a federal database that allowed him to check citizenship.

Once he ran some of those names through the database, he did not find any non-citizens on the voter rolls.

In the meantime, thousands of people, the vast majority of them Democrats and unaffiliated voters, have gotten an official letter from an elected official asking them to prove their status. On Thursday, the secretary's office announced that 16 who got letters withdrew their registrations.

Critics are screaming at the top of their lungs that Gessler, a Republican, is using his power to intimidate voters whose political affiliations are different than his in the run-up to the November elections. Those accusations are not easily dismissed.

Read more: Editorial: Secretary of State Gessler owes some apologies - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_21437976/editorial-secretary-state-gessler-owes-some-apologies#ixzz259GFgquw
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[freshwest]

1. GOP election officials = Oxymoron.

[LiberalFighter]

2. I'm going through our 4000+ membership file locating their registration status

Sometimes their given names don't match. Nickname, different version, etc.
Sometimes their dob don't match. Most likely a clerical error on the part of the agency. I've seen year off by a year. I've seen month and day transposed.
Sometimes the surname is spelled wrong. Again clerical error.