Coloradoans: If you receive long voter registration document claiming intent to confirm your address

[hlthe2b]

which purports to be from the Secretary of State's office (and with a return address to the SOS office), look carefully. If it was mailed FROM THE VOTER PARTICIPATION CENTER in Denver, no matter how official it looks, do not complete it.

I was angry to have received it, since I know I had corrected my home address on the SOS official voter site a year ago and this form was asking for all that information, driver's license, phone number and email address.

I called the county voter registrar's office and they affirmed that this is from a 501C voter group--not from the SOS office and not officially sanctioned by the SOS office, though it appears that our a-hole SOS is enabling them. The representative from the county registrar indicated she and other registrars were writing official complaints and she told me to discard it.

Here's where you SHOULD go if you have questions about your registration:
https://www.sos.state.co.us/voter-classic/secuVoterSearch.do?transactionType=voterSearch

Don't let these a'holes get your information and don't be deceived.

I'm going to edit this to add that residents of other states may well receive similar mailings. If in doubt, PLEASE, call your local voter registrar!

[denverbill]

1. Thanks for the heads-up. We'll keep an eye out.

Have you reported this to any media? I would think the Denver Post might be interested, though they aren't exactly liberal.

[hlthe2b]

2. I offered my help to the county registrar and suggested getting the media involved...

She indicated other registrars had considered that, but felt it might have the unwanted effect of depressing voter registration and ultimately the vote. Frankly, I think this long involved form has that affect...It upsets me that SOS has obviously given this group access to information that could readily lead to identity theft. My mailing had my middle name on it, current and former address-- and I NEVER use my middle name. NEVER.

Am going to consider doing so...

[The Last Dem.]

3. Thanks

[locks]

4. Thanks

I got a phone message that I had not returned a form they had sent to confirm that I'm registered. I did not receive any form and have been registered here for many years and always vote. I erased it before it was finished but I expect it was from one of these same groups.

[VoterParticipation]

5. Voter Participation Center

Hello. We're the Voter Participation Center. We saw your post and wanted to clear a few things up.

We'd like to start out by apologizing to you for any confusion you may have experienced, since you apparently received our mailing in error.

Because none of the states have a public list of unregistered, voting-eligible adults, we create our lists from commercially available data and then cross-check those lists against the state's list of registered voters. It isn't a perfect process, but we go to every effort to make sure that we're only mailing voter registration forms to voting-eligible, unregistered adults.

The envelopes included with the voter registration forms we mail out are addressed directly to state election officials so that when a registrant puts their voter registration form in the mail, they can rest assured that it's going directly to their state government rather than through any intermediary.

You can read more about our mailing efforts, and learn how to remove yourself from our mailing list, on our website:
http://www.voterparticipation.org/mailings-from-the-voter-participation-center-ensure-that-only-eligible-voters-apply/

Please contact us using the contact form on our website if you have any further questions or concerns.

Thank you,

The Voter Participation Center

[hlthe2b]

6. As stated previously, 1. you had information on me NOT publicly available, including my middle name

and the information contained in your mailing could readily put me at risk for identity theft. If you think, for one moment, I would be stupid enough go to your website to validate WHO I AM in order to "request I be removed from future mailings"... Not everyone is so damned foolish. I don't answer phishing emails either, which this ugly tactic very much resembles.

2. the deceptive nature of your mailing that implies it is coming from the SOS office, has registrars all over Colorado extremely upset to the point they are registering official complaints with the SOS office. Your mailing may go to the SOS office, but what, exactly is YOUR PURPOSE? FWIW, I have made myself personally available to my local registrar if they wish help in addressing this.

3. We've all been through this crap before with Republican efforts to "verify" addresses by sending out mailings which, when ignored allow them to "QUESTION" the validity of voters, especially in close elections.

4. I believe my own county voter registrar, who has no skin in the game when it comes to election outcome. I do NOT believe the same for your group.

[locks]

7. I know we've had plenty of con jobs, especially from the right,

but from what I've found this groups sounds very legitimate and has a history of increasing voting by single women, young people and people of color which we really want to see. If DUers have worked with it I'd appreciate knowing their opinion.

[hlthe2b]

8. Since county registrars (mine with >10 years in the job) are LIKEWISE questioning their tactics...

I believe I will stick with THEIR assessment and not some spin-filled propaganda posted by some anonymous person with a "google alert" set up.

But, by all means register your full name, driver's license number, date of birth, phone number, email address, home address, date of residence and party affiliation with them (!) So much better to trust in a third party's motives than to simply use the direct link to the SOS website provided to register-- surely. But clearly, this is NOT the league of women voters or the several other well known and reputable groups long active in voter registration and fair elections, so if their deceptive tactics and mailing does not bother you, by all means.