Colorado Bill Would Require Citizenship Proof To Vote
DENVER (AP) - A Republican proposal would allow the Colorado secretary of state's office to remove people from voter rolls if they can't prove they're citizens, another GOP attempt this session to solve what they say is a voter-fraud problem.
The bill, which faces its first hearing Wednesday, would require the secretary of state to compare voter rolls with state and federal records to determine if registered voters are U.S. citizens. When someone's citizenship is in doubt, they would get a letter and have 90 days to submit a birth certificate, passport or other proof. They'd be ineligible to vote if they don't comply.
"We think it's a lot better in Colorado for us to send a letter to someone, for someone to get a letter in the mail, rather than for them to get a knock on the door," Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler said Tuesday. "Because all we want to do is clean up the voter rolls."
Other legislation from Republicans to require proof of citizenship to vote has already failed in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Democrats say such legislation is not needed and would suppress voter turnout.
Gessler said if House Bill 1252 doesn't pass, he'll ask Republican Attorney General John Suthers for a legal opinion on whether the secretary of state's office has the authority to do what the bill says. Gessler said another option would be to report the people his office suspects have illegally registered to vote.
"What we'll probably do is refer these names to the appropriate authorities for investigation and potential prosecution," Gessler said. "I don't want to have to do that. I don't think it makes sense to engage in sort of the criminal law-enforcement aspects of this."
Rep. Pete Lee, a Democrat from Colorado Springs, said Gessler and Republican bill sponsor Rep. Chris Holbert of Douglas County are looking to fix a problem that doesn't exist.
"I think we should be more focused on encouraging people to vote instead of discouraging or intimidating people from voting," Lee said.
Gessler said his office is "nearly certain" that 106 noncitizens registered to vote since August 2006, when Colorado began requiring that people show proof they were in the country legally to get a driver's license. Gessler said his office arrived at the 106 figure because those people apparently registered to vote when they obtained a driver's license with a green card that indicates an immigrant's permanent residency.
"Wow," Lee said, mocking the figure. "It's pretty minuscule, isn't it?"
Gessler said the number of people illegally registered to vote could be in the thousands but it's difficult for his office to determine an exact number because it doesn't have access to databases showing when immigrants became naturalized citizens.
"We know there's a problem. We just don't know how big the problem is," Gessler said.
- By Ivan Moreno, AP Writer
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
