mesa county cora docs 7.23.12

7/31/2019 Mesa County CORA Docs 7.23.12

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2/17

From: Richard Coolidge To: 'Sheila Reiner' Date: 03/12/2012 12:51 PMSubject: RE: Non-citizens

That may be what the manual says if the boxes are left blank, but if the voter checks the "No" I'm not acitizen box, I would not register the voter and follow up with a letter. If the voter does leave the citizenshipboxes blank and still signs the affirmation, again, we have no way of knowing without verifying thatinformation. As I said, that part of the registration form relies on the "honor system," which is why theSecretary is pursuing ways to verify the citizenship status of Colorado voters.

-----Original Message-----

From: Sheila Reiner [mailto:[email protected]]Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 12:03 PMTo: Richard CoolidgeSubject: Re: Non-citizens

I thought rule 2.7 and the SOS policy manual says to register a person even if they miss the checkboxbecause the oath confirms the same. Page 16 of the policy manual.

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 12, 2012, at 11:58 AM, "Richard Coolidge " wrote:

> Unfortunately we have data entry errors on both sides of the equation. We have some registered votersthat fill out the entire registration application, and even check the "No" box under citizenship, but areregistered anyway. Others may register and say they're a citizen at first, then register with a VRD yearslater stating they're not a citizen. The ones that slip through the cracks may receive mail ballots andagain, we have no way of verifying that status.>> I left the voter ID numbers on your voicemail. The voter in question was cancelled as a non-citizen inArapahoe, not Adams, as I previously stated.>> Thanks for clarifying the blogger's question. I'll make sure he knows to ask for how many voters werecancelled for not being a citizen, so we're comparing apples to apples.>> Rich>

> From: Sheila Reiner [mailto:[email protected]]> Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 10:28 AM> To: Richard Coolidge; [email protected]> Cc: Catherine Lenhart; Hilary Rudy; Michael Hagihara> Subject: RE: Non-citizens>> It was a data entry mistake on our end for the third person. It has been corrected to moved out of state.


3/17

> I think the data and each person's take on how to mark a record can be interpreted differently. Pleasegive me the voter IDs of the Adams County voter that Mesa has registered now and I will research thatone as well.>> Thanks,>> Sheila>>>>> Richard Coolidge 03/12/2012 8:55 AM >>>> Sheila,> I apologize if my email came off rude. Certainly that wasn't my intent. I understand that this blogger has

an agenda, but your quotes and this graph "County clerks and staff contacted by the Independent so farin some of the state's most populous counties, including Adams, Boulder, Denver and Pueblo, have saidthat they, like Reiner in Mesa County, have no knowledge of any non-citizens ever being registered tovote nor have they knowingly received any requests to be removed from the voter rolls from non-citizenresidents of the state," seem at odds with the facts and the data in SCORE.>> We looked at all voters cancelled in SCORE with the flag "Not a Citizen", which identified 422 recordsstatewide. Some of these voters also had vote history. Some provided handwritten letters requesting tobe removed and apologizing for registering.

>> In Mesa County, three voters are flagged as "Not a Citizen." The one you identified having votinghistory was cancelled by your staff as "Not a Citizen" but can you give me additional details that show thatshe is, in fact, a citizen? Also, we identified a voter that was cancelled in Adams County as "Not a Citizen"but also maintains an inactive record in Mesa. I'd be happy to share additional information if you'd like toreview further.>> Last year, you told your local paper, "I believe that there's people who might accidentally get registered,but they won't vote." I'm sure you'll agree that without any way to verify a person's citizenship status in thecurrent system, the database is vulnerable and to rely on the "honor system" is counterintuitive to ourelection process. I've attached a presentation by the North Carolina Board of Elections that conducted asimilar process that the Secretary asked for in HB11-1252. You'll notice that 79 of 637 identified votersrequested to be removed from the voter rolls. Twelve of these voters had voted in past elections.>> I think you're right. It would be helpful if you considered adding an optional field on your withdrawal formasking why a person was withdrawing his/her voter record. As we've seen in other counties, there aremultiple examples of people registering both accidentally and willfully.>> Again, happy to discuss with you further.

> Rich>>> From: Sheila Reiner[mailto:[email protected]]> Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2012 10:51 AM> To: Richard Coolidge


4/17

Research is needed to find the reason, if they indicate a reason at all. We had over 300 withdraw in2011.>> Two of the three you searched up seem to be right, two actually do indicate they were mistakenlyregistered. One notified us by phone and the other notified us in writing. Neither one of them ever voted.That is great that your office is able to identify these records of non-citizens who have removedthemselves and have not committed voter fraud.>> One appears to be a person who moved out of state and notified us. The third person has a votinghistory and is a citizen as far as I can tell.>> I would like to ask again to have the data your office claims to have in regards to non-citizens that are

currently registered to vote. It's been about a year to the day of my first request, I would like to sendletters to clarify their citizenship status if any of them are in Mesa.>> Your e-mail sure was rude Rich, I look forward to the CORA request and future constructiveconversations as we work together on ensuring the data we are sharing with the media is factual.>>>>

>> [cid:[email protected]]> [email protected]> http://clerk.mesacounty.us>> (970)244-1714> cell (970)210-0117>>>>>> Richard Coolidge 03/08/2012 11:43 AM >>>> Sheila,> I just did a search in SCORE for all Mesa voters cancelled due to "Not a Citizen." Three records cameup. Your office actually sent a letter to one voter saying "Thank you for completing a mail-in ballotapplication form, however, we cannot keep your registered to vote because you have checked the boxindicating you are not a US Citizen." The voter registered in Jan. 2008 and you didn't cancel the recorduntil 14 months later. Yet, according to a quote attributed to you, you "have no idea what [Gessler] istalking about.">

> I'd be happy to discuss further if you need help with the Independent's CORA request.>> Richard Coolidge> Communications Director> Colorado Secretary of State's Office> 1700 Broadway, Suite 200> Denver, CO 80290


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>

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Sheila Reiner - RE: Non-cit izens

I've communicated with Arapahoe, both voters they have in non-citizen status with voting history appear to be conversion issues from their old VR system.

The one voter we had with voting history was also in the non-citizen/canceled state in error. Do you prefer the counties to correct the status now so you know how many we really have or leavethem and explain when the open records requests come?

I think we are down to 13 in non-citizen status with voting history if Arapahoe's 2 are corrected. A few of them I looked at were citizens and moved to another country and relinquished it. So itseems like they were legal while they were voting.

Do you know when the bill will drop for Citizenship?

Sheila

On Mar 12, 2012, at 11:58 AM, "Richard Coolidge " wrote:

> Unfortunately we have data entry errors on both sides of the equation. We have some registered voters that fill out the entire registration application, and even check the "No" box undercitizenship, but are registered anyway. Others may register and say they're a citizen at first, then register with a VRD years later stating they're not a citizen. The ones that slip through the cracksmay receive mail ballots and again, we have no way of verifying that status.>> I left the voter ID numbers on your voicemail. The voter in question was cancelled as a non-citizen in Arapahoe, not Adams, as I previously stated.>> Thanks for clarifying the blogger's question. I'll make sure he knows to ask for how many voters were cancelled for not being a citizen, so we're comparing apples to apples.>> Rich>> From: Sheila Reiner [mailto:[email protected]]

> Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 10:28 AM> To: Richard Coolidge; [email protected]> Cc: Catherine Lenhart; Hilary Rudy; Michael Hagihara> Subject: RE: Non-citizens>> It was a data entry mistake on our end for the third person. It has been corrected to moved out of state. The reporter's question was, how many have withdrawn because of not being acitizen. I personally was not aware of any. When you look up withdrawn it doesn't designate who is "not a citizen." If it were me doing the data entry I would have used "withdrew" for one of ourvoters who did register and then withdrew.>> The other was a data entry mistake from the get go, and we removed her and I would agree with the designation "canceled", "not a voter" the DL change form is clearly marked not a citizenand not for voter registration purposes.>> I think the data and each person's take on how to mark a record can be interpreted differently. Please give me the voter IDs of the Adams County voter that Mesa has registered now and I willresearch that one as well.>

> Thanks,>> Sheila>>>>> Richard Coolidge 03/12/2012 8:55 AM >>>> Sheila,> I apologize if my email came off rude. Certainly that wasn't my intent. I understand that this blogger has an agenda, but your quotes and this graph "County clerks and staff contacted by theIndependent so far in some of the state's most populous counties, including Adams, Boulder, Denver and Pueblo, have said that they, like Reiner in Mesa County, have no knowledge of any non-citizens ever being registered to vote nor have they knowingly received any requests to be removed from the voter rolls from non-citizen residents of the state," seem at odds with the facts andthe data in SCORE.>> We looked at all voters cancelled in SCORE with the flag "Not a Citizen", which identified 422 records statewide. Some of these voters also had vote history. Some provided handwritten lettersrequesting to be removed and apologizing for registering.>> In Mesa County, three voters are flagged as "Not a Citizen." The one you identified having voting history was cancelled by your staff as "Not a Citizen" but can you give me additional details

that show that she is, in fact, a citizen? Also, we identified a voter that was cancelled in Adams County as "Not a Citizen" but also maintains an inactive record in Mesa. I'd be happy to shareadditional information if you'd like to review further.>

> Last year, you told your local paper, "I believe that there's people who might accidentally get registered, but they won't vote." I'm sure you'll agree that without any way to verify a person'scitizenship status in the current system, the database is vulnerable and to rely on the "honor system" is counterintuitive to our election process. I've attached a presentation by the North Carolina

Board of Elections that conducted a similar process that the Secretary asked for in HB11-1252. You'll notice that 79 of 637 identified voters requested to be removed from the voter rolls. Twelveof these voters had voted in past elections.>

> I think you're right. It would be helpful if you considered adding an optional field on your withdrawal form asking why a person was withdrawing his/her voter record. As we've seen in othercounties, there are multiple examples of people registering both accidentally and willfully.

>A i h t di ith f th

From: Sheila ReinerTo: [email protected]: 03/21/2012 6:13 AM

Subject: RE: Non-citizensCC: [email protected]

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ever voted. That is great that your office is able to identify these records of non-citizens who have removed themselves and have not committed voter fraud.>> One appears to be a person who moved out of state and notified us. The third person has a voting history and is a citizen as far as I can tell.>> I would like to ask again to have the data your office claims to have in regards to non-citizens that are currently registered to vote. It's been about a year to the day of my first request, I wouldlike to send letters to clarify their citizenship status if any of them are in Mesa.>

> Your e-mail sure was rude Rich, I look forward to the CORA request and future constructive conversations as we work together on ensuring the data we are sharing with the media is factual.>>>>>> [cid:[email protected]]> [email protected]> http://clerk.mesacounty.us>> (970)244-1714> cell (970)210-0117>>>>>> Richard Coolidge 03/08/2012 11:43 AM >>>> Sheila,> I just did a search in SCORE for all Mesa voters cancelled due to "Not a Citizen." Three records came up. Your office actually sent a letter to one voter saying "Thank you for completing a mail-in ballot application form, however, we cannot keep your registered to vote because you have checked the box indicating you are not a US Citizen." The voter registered in Jan. 2008 and youdidn't cancel the record until 14 months later. Yet, according to a quote attributed to you, you "have no idea what [Gessler] is talking about.">> I'd be happy to discuss further if you need help with the Independent's CORA request.>> Richard Coolidge> Communications Director> Colorado Secretary of State's Office> 1700 Broadway, Suite 200> Denver, CO 80290> (303) 860-6903> [Description: facebook-25][Description: twitter-25] [Description: vimeo-21]

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8/17

Don

Wright

July29,2011


9/17

NonCitizenscangetaSSN

Your

Social

Security

Number

And

CardIfyouareanoncitizenlegally livingintheUnitedStates,youa somaygetaSocia Securitynum er.Formoreinformation,seeSocialSecurityNumbersFor

. .temporarilylegallyintheUnitedStatestowork,seeForeignWorkersandSocialSecurityNumbers(Publication

No.

05

10107).

(TheaboveisfromtheSSAWebsite.)


10/17

ThereisNoNationalDatabase

o

. .

zens

y Gearedtoconfirmlegalpresenceincountry

y ,listed

y Desi nedforem lo ers

y Thereisachargeforeachsearch

y Willnotallowastateelectionsofficetoparticipate


11/17

NCDMVy

The

NC

DMV

will

note

as

legal

presence

any

non

citizengettingaNCDriversLicense.

y T eNCSBEiswor ingtogett e ega presence noticeastoanyVRsentbySEIMStotheNCDMV

.

y AnoticeoflegalpresenceisnoticethatatthetimeoftheissuanceoftheNCDLthepersonwasnotacitizen.


12/17

Whatwedid

On

February

22,

2011,

our

agency

mailed

637

letters

to

registeredvoterstoinquireabouttheirUnitedStates.

6,2011tothosevoterswhodidnotrespondtoourfirst

mailin .In

the

event

that

amailin

was

returned

as

undeliverablebythepostalservice,weobtainedupdatedaddressesforthesevotersandremailedthese

e ers

o

evo ers

new

a ress.


13/17

TheResults

,306ofthesevoters:

y 223 were . .c zens y r na ura za on a e me

theyregistered

and

there

are

no

issues

as

to

these

voters.

Thiswasprovedbypresentationofnaturalizationor

elections.

, . . ,beforebecomingU.S.citizens.Theywillberemovedas

votersandwillneedtoregisteranew. Noneoftheseindividualshavevoted.

y 79 registeredvoters,whoareapparentlynotaU.S.citizen,.

voters,67havenotvotedand12havevoted.


14/17

NoResponses

Wehaveyettoreceiveawrittenresponsefrom331oftheidentifiedvoters:

y 253individualshavenotrespondedtothetwomailings.Nomailin fortheseindividualshasbeenreturnedtooura enc asundeliverablefromtheU.S.PostalService. 53ofthesevotershavevoted.Ouragencyisintheprocessofhavingthesevoters

removedfrom

the

voter

registration

rolls.

y 78individualshadtheirlettersreturnedbypostofficeasundeliverableorthe havecommunicatedtousb somemeans

otherthan

amailed

response.

A

mailed

response

is

needed

to

determinewhethertheseindividualsareaUnitedStatescitizenandareproperlyregistered.18ofthesevotershavevoted.Ouragency s nt eprocesso av ngt esevotersremove romt e

voter

registration

rolls.


15/17

OurActiony Wesentthevoterswhoarebeingremoveda noticeoftheirremoval.A

voterregistration

form

was

attached

to

the

notice

so

that

the

person

mayreregisteriftheybecomeaU.S.citizenatalatertime. Theformma alsobeusedtorere istertovoteintheeventthatthe ersonwasqualifiedtoberegisteredtovoteandtheybelievethattheywereremovedfromthevotersrollsinerror.Finally,thiscorrespondence

clearly

set

out

that

it

is

illegal

for

non

citizens

to

register

to

vote.

y Allindividualsremovedfromthevoterrollsasaresultofthisproject,regardlessofwhethertheyvoluntarilyrescindedtheirvoterregistration,orfailedtorespondtoourmailings,havebeenreferredto

. . .our

practice

and

the

law,

we

will

defer

to

the

District

Attorney

and

the

U.S.Attorneyonanydecisiontoprosecuteindividualcases.Westandreadytocooperatewiththeirofficesasrequested.


16/17

PersonsBorninAmerican

ResidentsofPuertoRico,U.S.Virgin Islands,Guam,an or ern ar ana s an sare mer canc zens

butdo

not

vote

for

federal

offices

while

living

in

territories.Butiftheymovetheirlegalresidencetoastate,theyarefreetoregistertovoteasanAmericancitizen.SEIMSwillbemodifiedtopresumeAmericancitizenshi

of

ersons

born

in

Puerto

Rico

U.S.

Vir in

Islands(onlyafterJanuary17,1917),Guam,andtheNorthernMarianaIslands(onlyafterDecember24,

.

bornin

American

Samoa

or

Swains

Island

to

allow

themtoregistertovotesincetheyarenotAmericanc zens.


17/17

An American citizen born outside the U.S. and never hasresidedintheU.S.,effectiveJanuary1,2012, can

registertovoteinNorthCarolina.Thisisinthenewly

enacted

UMOVA

Act

passed

by

the

General

Assembly 163258.2.Definitions.

suse n s r c e:(1)"Coveredvoter"meansanyofthefollowing:

e.An

overseas

voter

who

was

born

outside

the

United

States,

isnotdescribedinsubsubdivisionc.ord.ofthissubdivision,and,exceptforaStateresidencyrequirement,otherwisesatisfiesthisState'svotereligibility

,

1.Thelastplacewhereaparentorlegalguardianofthevoterwas,orunderthisArticlewouldhavebeen,eligibletovote

2.Thevoterhasnotpreviouslyregisteredtovoteinanyotherstate.

mesa county cora docs 7.23.12

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