A tiny box is causing big headaches for thousands of Coloradans who thought they were registered to vote and who now have just three weeks to get the problem fixed.
If not, they’ll have to go to the polls and ask for provisional ballots, which must be verified as cast by an eligible voter before being counted.
The box on the state’s voter-registration form must be checked if a voter does not have a Colorado driver’s license or a state ID number. Many people filled out the spaces just below the box that ask for the last four digits of their Social Security numbers — but they didn’t check the box.
Under rules set by Secretary of State Mike Coffman’s office, that means the voter-registration form is incomplete and must be sent back to the voter, who can check the box and return the form.
So far, 6,462 people have been caught in the box mix-up, and more are expected as new registrations are processed.
“We’re talking about thousands of voters who could be denied their right to vote on Election Day because of this technicality,” said Jenny Flanagan, executive director of Colorado Common Cause.
Flanagan’s group estimated that as many as 10,000 voters could be affected because of the box technicality. She called on Coffman, a Republican, to accept voter registrations from people who didn’t check the box.
In a statement, though, Coffman said that wouldn’t be following the law.
“State law is clear that voters must first affirm that they do not have a driver’s license or state ID before being allowed to use their Social Security number, as a form of identification, when registering to vote,” he said.
But Flanagan pointed out that county clerks must accept federal voter- registration forms, which don’t have the check-off box. The form simply asks for a Social Security number if a voter has no driver’s license number.
The issue was further complicated by the fact that Coffman’s office originally advised county clerks that voters only had until Oct. 6 to fix the problem. That was incorrect; voters have until Election Day to complete their registration forms.
Coffman’s office admitted the mistake last week as Democrats, including Gov. Bill Ritter, blasted him for the error.
In a letter to Coffman on Monday, groups including Common Cause, the American Civil Liberties Union, Brennan Center for Justice, and Fair Elections Legal Network urged him to reverse his decision.
“At the very least, all voters whose applications were marked ‘incomplete’ must be added to the statewide voter registration database and be allowed to cast regular ballots if they provide the missing checkmark or other information at the polls,” their letter said.
Coffman’s office provided numbers showing that, as of Monday, there were 22,161 voter registrations that have been deemed incomplete. That includes the 6,462 registrations with the box problem and 9,117 registrations lacking a date of birth, a signature or other information. The total also includes 2,951 registrations that had unverifiable addresses and 1,139 registrations on forms from other states or out of date.
Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com
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