Secretary of Secretary Jena Griswold | Jena for Colorado
Secretary of Secretary Jena Griswold | Jena for Colorado
The Colorado GOP has criticized Colorado's Secretary of State Jena Griswold for mailing cards in which people who are in the country illegally are encouraged to register to vote.
Two years ago, she sent similar cards to the same group of people, as well as deceased people.
“Have you heard this story before?” the Colorado Republicans group tweeted on Oct. 10. “Yes, because in 2020 just prior to that election, Jena Griswold's office sent voter registration notices to noncitizens and dead people urging them to register. It seems she just made almost the same mistake.”
CPR News reported the gaffe. The cards are intended to be sent to people who are eligible to vote but not registered. They say: "Make sure your voice is heard this November" and "Register to VOTE today at www.GoVoteColorado.gov.”
“The Department has become aware that approximately 30,000 EBU [Eligible But Unregistered] postcard mailers were incorrectly sent to ineligible Coloradans,” a spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office said. “The office is undertaking an internal review of the incident and will take any corrective action that is warranted.”
It’s very similar to the lead-up to the 2020 election, where Breitbart reported that Griswold's office sent out such postcards to two groups of noneligible voters. One Colorado woman said she received a card addressed to her mother, who had passed away four years prior and had never lived in Colorado. Others who mistakenly received cards included citizens of Canada, Lebanon and Britain.
Judd Choate, director the secretary of state’s elections division, defended the 2020 mistake to CBS 4.
”Yes, it’s true that occasionally it will go to a person that it shouldn’t go to -- someone who’s already registered or somebody below the age of 18 -- but the vast, vast majority go to the people who are eligible and then many of them follow up and become registered voters, and they get their ballot in the mail and can vote in our election,” Choate said, according to Breitbart.
Griswold had spoken about the importance of "protecting the vote" at a Netroots Nation conference earlier that year.
Colorado is home to approximately 162,000 immigrants who have entered the country illegally, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Griswold, first elected in 2018, will face off against former county clerk Pam Anderson (R) in November.
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