This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
A “thinly veiled” attempt to “intimidate” elections officials.
That’s Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s response to a letter she received from the Department of Justice this week warned of criminal charges elections officials can face if non-citizens vote.
Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet K. Dhillon sent the letter to elections officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Dhillion reminded Griswold that state election officials, including herself, “could be criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting” non-citizens in voting.
The DOJ letter outlines statutes that have been on the books for decades that prohibit noncitizens from voting in federal elections. The letter also asks Secretaries of State to reply within five days with an outline of steps the state is taking to maintain “clean voter lists” and how it is complying with federal law.
“This is another thinly-veiled attempt by the Department of Justice to intimidate election officials and coerce compliance with their efforts to unlawfully inject the federal government into States’ constitutional duty to oversee elections,” Griswold said in a statement. “We stand ready to defend the rights of every voter and protect our elections.”
Voting by noncitizens is exceedingly rare. The conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, found only two examples of non-citizens being found guilty of attempting to register to vote in Colorado between 1982 and 2025.
One was Vitaliy Grabchenko in 2015. (This was after a voter fraud investigation launched by then Secretary of State Scott Gessler claimed that more than 100 people voted illegally. Four were charged — two with attempting to register to vote, two for helping register noncitizens to vote. In the end, charges against three were dismissed.) One person, Ajmal Shah, was convicted in 2005 of attempting to register to vote and providing false information regarding his citizenship.
While some localities do allow non-citizens to vote in local elections, Colorado does not. In fact, it is one of 18 states with language in the state constitution prohibiting noncitizen voting. It was Colorado Amendment 76 that voters approved in 2020.
The letter comes as the Trump administration continues to push a narrative that non-citizens are voting in large numbers without any evidence, and as the federal government tries to exert more control over elections.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March 2026 to stop the U.S. Postal Service from delivering ballots to anyone who is not on a federal list of eligible voters. So far, that has been blocked by a federal judge. But the USPS is considering a rule that, if adopted, would withhold mail ballots from states that don’t turn over their absentee voter rolls.
Trump is also pushing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require proof of citizenship and photo ID to vote, as well as prevent the use of mail-in ballots, except for illness, disability, travel or if a person is in the military.
The SAVE America Act does not have enough votes to pass in the Senate. Democrats argue it will disenfranchise voters, and senators from both sides of the aisle have voiced support for vote-by-mail.
