FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold Leads Letter Requesting Information from Trump Administration’s Departments of Justice, Homeland Security on Voter Roll Data Requests

Denver, Colo. – Today Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced that Colorado, along with nine other states, has sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem regarding their collection and use of state voter roll data, and whether they misled state officials.

“Trump’s federal government has started to collect state voter data and has provided conflicting information to Secretaries of State,” said Secretary Griswold. “I am proud to join nine other Secretaries of State in calling on Secretary Noem and Attorney General Bondi to immediately provide information on this unprecedented federal collection of voter data. We will not tolerate being misled or voter data mismanagement.”

The Department of Justice requested extensive voter data from various states earlier this year. Many states received requests for unredacted voter data, including sensitive voter information. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security has provided inconsistent information to Secretaries regarding whether it had received voter data from the Department of Justice, and whether or how it would use that data.

The letter from Secretaries of State asks, in part:

• Whether the DOJ has shared or intends to share information from voter files with DHS or other federal agencies and, if so, why that was not communicated to impacted Secretaries of State
• Whether any potential transfer of the data followed required data transfer protocol.
• Whether DHS continues to assert that they do not have and would not use voter data.

Letter signatories include:

• Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold
• Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes
• California Secretary of State Shirley Weber
• Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows
• Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon
• Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar
• New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver
• Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read
• Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas
• Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs

Full letter sent by 10 Secretaries of State to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (PDF). 

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