Colorado Felons in 2004

Colorado Secretary of State Donetta Davidson, just weeks before the 2004 election, removed 6000 "felons" from the voter rolls. But there were a few problems with this step.

  1. Federal law bars voter purges within 90 days of an election, so Davidson's move was illegal, except she declared it was an "emergency" to do it, hence it was legal.
  2. By Colorado law, felons lose their vote only while actually serving prison time. No Colorado con has ever been known to vote while in prison. So this was not exactly a suddenly necessary emergency move.
  3. Conveniently for (Republican) Davidson, the list of felons was overwhelmingly Democratic.

Postscript: Davidson was rewarded for her efforts by being made chair of the US federal "election assistance commission" in 2007.


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