State tries to soothe voters' fears

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Oct 18, 2004 | by PERRY SWANSON THE GAZETTE

DENVER - The state's top election and law enforcement officials Sunday tried to calm fears that alleged voter registration fraud and other flaws with voter lists will affect the Nov. 2 election.

Secretary of State Donetta Davidson said her office is working to find people who commit fraud and is fine-tuning election rules to ensure that everyone who's eligible gets an opportunity to vote.

Authorities in several counties are trying to find people who were paid by voter sign-up groups to register voters and are suspected of turning in forged registration documents. Davidson said handwriting experts and other investigators from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation are available to help identify and prosecute fraud.

"My goal is to preserve the purest election process," she said at a meeting Sunday with the governor, county clerks, district attorneys and representatives from state and U.S. attorneys offices.

At least one official said the registration problems have more to do with greed than politics. Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter said that in some cases people were paid for every voter they signed up, so it appears some made up voters to earn more money.

"We are not seeing some scam where people are trying to corrupt the process," Ritter said. "It's people who are involved in the registration process, who are getting paid for it and are doing things to feather their nest."

In the only case thought to have charges filed, a 27-year-old Aurora man, John MaCarthy, is accused of forging 48 registration documents. The false documents were discovered while they were being processed by election workers.

In El Paso County, the 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office is investigating about 60 questionable voter registration documents, but no one has been charged.

Several other problems are buffeting election officials.

An investigation by The Denver Post found 6,000 people on registration lists statewide who are not allowed to vote because they are serving prison sentences or are on parole. The secretary of state confirmed that finding and has sent lists of offenders to each county election office, Davidson said.

Election officials across the state, including in El Paso County, suspect some voter sign-up groups turned in only the registrations of people who agreed with their opinions and trashed the rest. That resulted in some people mistakenly thinking they had registered by the Oct. 4 deadline.

Davidson said the victims of such scams can vote as long as they detail how they tried to register. Anyone who lies about trying to register could face perjury charges.

There's also a lawsuit filed by the government watchdog group Colorado Common Cause seeking to invalidate the secretary of state's rule that voters must show ID before casting a ballot. A Denver judge is expected to rule in that case today.

Colorado Gov. Bill Owens said complex state and federal laws passed in recent years contributed to the confusion over voting rules.

"We want to have a fair, honest election," Owens said. "I want people to vote who have the legal right to vote, not some of these fake registrations that have been reported."

The director of Boulderbased Citizens for Accurate Mail Ballot Election Results, Al Kolwicz, said the secretary of state's measures aren't nearly enough. Kolwicz said election officials have ignored questions his group raised about electronic voting accuracy, absentee ballot security and other issues.

"They tried to present a dog-and-pony show, which shouldn't be bought," Kolwicz said "The issues are bigger than what they're showing us."

Davidson said verifying voter registrations will be easier in two years, when a new computer system links information from her office, the Department of Corrections and driver's license bureaus, where many people register to vote.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0187 or pswanson@gazette.com