This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
Colorado’s top election official said the state will not comply with a new request from the Trump administration to turn over voters’ driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.
“The DOJ is trying to collect a lot of data on American voters, and they do not have a legal right to the sensitive information they're asking for, and we don't trust what they're trying to do with it,” said Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold in an interview with CPR News.
Even if Griswold did want to turn over the information, she believes state law prohibits her from doing so. An update to the state’s open records laws in 2024 blocks sensitive personal data like birth dates and signatures from being released publicly.
Griswold said this latest request from the Department of Justice is more specific than the request Colorado received last spring. Under that first request, the state provided publicly available information from the state’s voter rolls.
“And it was really broad. So in the initial request, they did not specifically ask for social security numbers or driver's license numbers, and we did not provide any of the sensitive information,” Griswold said.
Colorado is not the first state to receive the request for sensitive data, and a number of states have already decided not to comply and are being sued by the administration. In November, Griswold sent a letter along with nine other Secretaries of State to seek answers about whether the Trump administration turned over voter information to Homeland Security officials.
“Americans deserve to know what he is doing, trying to collect mass voter data and whether they are trying to quietly run this data through an unproven citizen check system,” Griswold said. “And I think it's ironic that the DOJ has refused to respond to a letter from 10 secretaries of state asking about how they're using this data, only to turn around and request more information on Colorado voters.”
The Trump administration has defended these requests.
“Accurate voter rolls are the cornerstone of fair and free elections, and too many states have fallen into a pattern of noncompliance with basic voter roll maintenance," said Attorney General Pam Bondi. "The Department of Justice will continue filing proactive election integrity litigation until states comply with basic election safeguards."
Voter information isn’t the only thing the Trump administration is focused on in the Colorado election world. On Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump reiterated his calls for the state to free former Republican Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters.
“The SLEAZEBAG Governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, refuses to allow an elderly woman, Tina Peters, who was unfairly convicted of what the Democrats do, cheating on Elections out of jail!”
Supporters of the incarcerated former Mesa County clerk have been pushing to get her transferred from a state facility to a federal prison, arguing that it would be a safer environment as she appeals her state conviction. The state denied that request. Because she was convicted of state crimes, only Gov. Jared Polis has the power to pardon her or commute her sentence.
A state judge sentenced Peters to nine years after she was found guilty of several felonies stemming from her efforts to help a man gain unauthorized access to Mesa County’s Dominion voting machines in 2021.
Polis later responded with a post of his own, noting that the nation would be better off if the president focused on reducing the cost of living rather than posting attacks on state executives.
