300,000 DUPLICATE COLORADO VOTERS?

Watchdog.org reported on Wednesday that a multi-state database of voter registration information from Secretaries of State shows that as many as 300,000 Coloradans may also be registered to vote in other states. That comes to just over 1 in 12 registered Colorado voters, and it raises additional questions about the difficulty of ensuring clean voter rolls in the light of recent loosening of the rules, up to and including same-day voter registration without adequate identification.

Known as the Interstate Cross-Check (or simply, the “Crosscheck”), the database is coordinated by the Kansas Secretary of State’s office. Begun in 2005 with just four states, the Cross-check has grown to include 28 states, but it doesn’t even include the most populous states of California, Texas, Florida, and New York. Of the states included, Arizona, Washington, Michigan, and Georgia have the largest number of potential duplicate registrants with Colorado. Arizona alone has nearly 30,000. The Cross-check also found 10 duplicate voter IDs and 729 duplicate voter rows within Colorado.

The Cross-check has in past years yielded cases of double-voting referred for prosecution. Andrew Cole of the Colorado Secretary of State’s office estimated the number to be about a dozen over the last several election cycles.

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