6,000 felons on voter lists
By Susan Greene and Jeffrey A. Roberts
Denver Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 10, 2004
denverpost.com
State officials fail to keep inmates, parolees from registering, voting.
With less than a month until Election Day, Colorado's registration rolls include as many as 6,000 felons who should be ineligible to vote.
Election officials have failed to prevent state prisoners and parolees from registering or casting ballots. Records show felons have voted as recently as the August primary, despite a law forbidding it.
Secretary of State Donetta Davidson said she was unaware of potential problems until she was asked about a Denver Post comparison of voter registrations to felons currently in the Department of Corrections system.
"Did I look at it when I took office? No. Could I have looked at it? Yes," said Davidson, a Republican, and Colorado's election chief since 1999. "I had no idea we had that type of numbers."
Davidson plans this week to convene an emergency meeting of clerks from Colorado's 64 counties to try to keep prisoners and parolees from voting in November.
Meanwhile, some watchdogs wonder why she didn't notice the felons earlier. The oversight, they say, compromises the democratic process.
"You have to wonder if they're malicious or inept in the secretary of state's office," said Al Kolwicz, executive director of Boulder-based Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election Results, or CAMBER. "Every ineligible elector that votes cancels the vote of an eligible elector."
Many could visit polls
State law says that "no person while serving a sentence of detention or confinement in a correctional facility, jail, or other location or while serving a sentence of parole shall be eligible to register to vote or to vote in any election ...."
A comparison of state voter rolls and a recent Department of Corrections roster shows 6,006 people on both lists share the same first names, last names and dates of birth. The Post did not count any records where middle initials did not match. The newspaper also did not count several records where it appeared an inmate had registered to vote more than once.
More than 40 percent of the 6,006 are on parole or in community corrections or intensive-supervision programs and conceivably could visit their polling place for the Nov. 2 election. About 34 percent are Democrats, 21 percent are Republicans, and 45 percent are unaffiliated with a political party.
Records through early September show 536 felons registered this year. Many took part in registration drives that have recruited tens of thousands of potential new voters since March.
Some parolees said workers eager to sign up new voters assured them they could lawfully register and vote.
"I hope this don't get me back in prison. I can't afford that," said Arthur Wilkerson, who registered outside a Pueblo Wal- Mart in July while on parole for assault.
One group, the Colorado Voting Project, signed up 77 voters Sept. 29 in the Denver County Jail. Project leader Carol Peeples said she was aiming for prisoners awaiting sentencing, who are entitled to vote.
Several parolees and community corrections inmates said they intend to vote next month and were unaware of the state law against it.
"Nobody told me it wasn't allowed," said parolee Don Phelan of Englewood.
No list sent to clerks
Colorado law long has prohibited prisoners from voting. In 1995, lawmakers added parolees to that restriction.
Parole directives issued by the state Department of Corrections don't advise parolees not to register, or not to vote.
"Each individual has a personal accountability to know the laws of the state," department spokeswoman Alison Morgan said.
The secretary of state regularly gets notices from the U.S. Justice Department about Coloradans in the federal justice system. Davidson's office forwards those names to county clerks so they can strike them from the registration rolls.
But the secretary of state's office gets no such list from the state Corrections Department, so a far greater number of state prisoners and parolees aren't erased.
"We can only act on the information provided us," state Elections Director Bill Compton said. "This particular issue is a matter for corrections to address."
In response, Morgan said, "We send data sets to agencies that request the information."
Davidson's office didn't ask for the list of felons until late last week after The Post inquired, she said.
For their part, county clerks say they haven't combed their rolls for felons because Davidson never forwarded the data.
"I have always assumed that the secretary of state's office would notify us of anyone who is not eligible to vote. I don't have that information available to me," said Adams County Clerk Carol Snyder. "It bothers me that anybody who is not an eligible, legal voter is on my list."
Snyder said no prisoners have been sent ballots in Adams County. But records show 33 listed their address as 8031 Interstate 76 - the address of Adams Community Corrections.
By far the largest number of felons registered to vote is in Denver, where Election Commission executive director Karon Hatchett wasn't available to comment Friday.
Meaningful numbers
There are enough felons on the state rolls to possibly tip the outcome of the election. But their mere presence on the voter rolls could be enough to force the outcome of any close race into the courts. In 2000, George W. Bush won Florida by 537 votes, while Democrat Al Gore claimed New Mexico by just 366 votes. Closer to home, in Colorado's new 7th Congressional District, Republican Bob Beauprez squeaked past Democrat Mike Feeley by 121 votes in 2002.
Davidson's office launched an investigation late last week to learn how many ineligible felons actually cast ballots in the August primary. A quick review of Denver's database alone revealed at least five who had voted in August.
"I don't know that they've been voting. But I don't know that they haven't," Compton said.
Davidson plans to work with the Corrections Department to create a centralized list of felons in the state system. She will update and share that list with county clerks each week before Election Day.
Rather than purging those names from the rolls and risking the possibility of disenfranchising eligible voters, she will direct county clerks to flag known felons so election judges give them "provisional," or emergency, ballots. Those who vote by mail will have their absentee ballots treated as provisional ballots. Their ballots will count only after secretary of state, corrections and county officials verify that no laws were broken, Davidson said.
Activists fear mistakes
Watchdogs fear officials will disenfranchise eligible voters in their scramble to strike felons from the rolls.
"As the secretary looks at this issue, we need to be especially vigilant that it doesn't lead us down the path of restricting people's right to vote," said Common Cause executive director Pete Maysmith.
Other activists hope Davidson's new policies don't infringe on the rights of ex-felons and people on probation, who are eligible to vote.
Seven states - not including Colorado - take away a felon's civil rights upon conviction: Ex-felons must apply to the state for clemency to have their voting rights restored.
The presence of felons on Colorado's registration rolls has prodded Davidson to seek a law next legislative session allowing her office to train workers collecting voter registration forms so they don't mislead prisoners or parolees about the law.
"We've never seen anything as alarming as this year," she said.
Davidson said problems with illegal voters should be fixed by 2006, when - in accordance with a new federal law - her office will launch a $10 million statewide registration system that will cross-reference potential voters with state felons. |
