State to search out felon voters

But Davidson says they still can cast a provisional ballot

By Peggy Lowe, Rocky Mountain News
October 12, 2004

Secretary of State Donetta Davidson on Monday said she will comb through three state databases and create a fourth to flag the more than 6,000 felons on Colorado voting rolls.

As she outlined her steps to hinder felons from voting, Davidson blamed large voter registration drives and a lack of fraud prosecutions on the large number of felons illegally on the rolls. 
"This is one more thing we've seen with the registration drives that have troubled us," she said.

Worried about possible lawsuits challenging her rules, Davidson said she won't just purge the rolls of felons but will allow people who show up and might be flagged as felons to vote with a provisional ballot.

Colorado doesn't have a law that would allow Davidson to automatically felons from the list, said Maurice Knaizer of the attorney general's office.

"We want to have them vote as a provisional voter in order to have the time to check the list," he said. "Is it a little more cautious? There is no doubt about that."

To flag each felon, Davidson said she will run checks of the state's voter database, county voter databases and the state's motor vehicle database. Then, state corrections officials will send her a list of felons that she will weekly and send on compact disc to county clerks.

A felon on probation may vote, Knaizer said. But a person on parole is barred from voting because a parolee still is considered in legal custody, Knaizer said.

Colorado is one of just four states where felons can vote if they are on probation but not if they are on parole or in prison, according to Unlock the Block, Release the Vote, a New York campaign working to change the law so felons can cast a vote.

"You want people to have a sense of ownership," said Joseph Hayden, the project's director.

If felons participate in the democratic process, they have more pride and are more likely to be productive citizens, he said.

Maine and Vermont are the only states in the country that allow everyone, including felons behind bars, to cast a vote. Massachusetts used to allow imprisoned felons to vote but changed the law after the 2000 election, Hayden said.

More than a dozen states allow felons to vote as long as they are not in prison.

But more than a dozen other states are much more strict. In those states, convicted felons are forever stripped of their right to vote, Hayden said. Some of those states will restore a felon's voting rights, but the appeals process is so costly and lengthy, it's prohibitive, Hayden said.

The United States takes a more conservative approach on the issue, Hayden said, noting that in Canada and Puerto Rico, all felons are allowed to vote, whether they're in prison or not.