DENVER — The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has sued 14 states for refusing to give up their voter registration lists, and Colorado could be next.
On Monday, the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ asked the Colorado Secretary of State’s office to enter into an agreement to share unredacted voter data like a voter’s full name, date of birth, residential address, state driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
"The recent request by the Civil Rights Division for state voter rolls is pursuant to that statutory authority, and the responsive data is being screened for ineligible voter entries," a spokesperson for the DOJ said in a statement.
Secretary of State Jena Griswold isn't agreeing to give the information up.
"To be very clear, the DOJ and Donald Trump have no legal right to this information, and so I told them politely to go take a hike," Griswold said.
When you drop your ballot inside drop boxes, voters expect their information to be protected, Griswold aruges.
"We are not going to be helping Donald Trump use the federal government to attack our elections, our democracy and Coloradans," Griswold said.
She also said the DOJ has no legal right to ask for this information. However the DOJ said in part, "Congress gave the Justice Department authority under the NVRA, HAVA, the Civil Rights Act, and other statutes to ensure that states have proper voter registration procedures and programs to maintain clean voter rolls containing only eligible voters in federal elections."
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the DOJ Harmeet K. Dhillon said her division"has a statutory mandate to enforce our federal voting rights laws, and ensuring the voting public’s confidence in the integrity of our elections is a top priority of this administration.”
Though Griswold said, Colorado already has secure elections.
That's why she's standing by the 14 other states already being sued.
"I would not be surprised if we do receive a lawsuit over this, but, but who knows? The DOJ is not acting in the professional way it used to act. It is a little bit more unpredictable. But largely states that have been refusing to share sensitive information are being sued by the Department of Justice," Griswold said.
Denver7 reached out to the Colorado Republican Party, as well as state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-District 23, who has butted heads with Griswold in the past. We have not yet heard back.
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