Illegal voters get stern warning (From Republican CO Secretary of State)

By Erin Cox and Chris Frates
Denver Post Staff Writers

Thursday, October 14, 2004 - Secretary of State Donetta Davidson said Wednesday that she will aggressively pursue the prosecution of voter registration fraud uncovered throughout the state.

In a passionate speech at a news conference about the integrity of the election process, Davidson pushed for more help from the state's district attorneys and attorney general.

Davidson, an elected Republican official, said she wants her warnings to prevent illegal voters from casting ballots.
'I hope I scared them to death,' she said.

She also said prosecutors had left her uninformed about their progress but acknowledged she had never asked for an update until Wednesday.

'I called the attorney general today and informed him that I was going to take a lead in some of this,' Davidson said. 'I've been out of the loop. ... I'm putting myself back into the loop.'

Davidson demanded a meeting Sunday of Denver metro district attorneys and candidates for the office to discuss how to go after voter fraud before and after the election.

The widening claims of voter registration fraud took on an increasingly partisan tone Wednesday, with Republicans threatening tough action and Democrats alleging Republicans are trying to bully voters away from the polls.

The documented fraud ranges from voters registered multiple times, unauthorized changes to party affiliation and as many as 6,000 felons on the registration rolls.

Davidson, along with county clerks across Colorado, has turned over at least 1,000 instances of questionable voter registrations to Attorney General Ken Salazar, she said.

Salazar, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, said he is "in full cooperation with the district attorneys around the state - we will find and prosecute these violations aggressively and to the fullest extent of the law."

Ken Lane, a spokesman for Salazar, said the office is currently prosecuting one individual and investigating about 150 suspicious documents.

Republican Gov. Bill Owens, who left the state Wednesday to campaign for President Bush, released a statement calling on elected officials "to place the highest priority on attacking potential voter fraud."

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