Rep. Ken Buck accuses Colorado secretary of state of sending voter registration cards to non-citizens and dead people, calls for probe

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Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Wednesday, asking them to look into the Colorado secretary of state's efforts to send out voter registration cards to non-citizens and dead people, ahead of November's election between Joe Biden and President Donald Trump.

Buck cited reports from both CBS and Brietbart about the cards being mailed out and said the actions by Secretary of State Jena Griswold cast a cloud over the final election results

"I write to share my concerns about recent reports that the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office mailed voter registration postcards to non-citizens and deceased individuals during a recent voter registration drive," he began. "The Secretary of State’s actions call into question the integrity of Colorado’s vote count with only 34 days until the 2020 election. As such, I urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate the potential violations of federal election law committed by the Secretary of State’s Office.

"Last week, CBS4 Denver reported that at least one dozen individuals who are ineligible to vote received a voter registration postcard from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office," Buck continued. "These individuals include a deceased woman, a British citizen, a man from Lebanon, and six migrant workers in Otero County, Colorado."

He also accused Griswold of having "knowingly used a third-party organization, the Electronic Registration Information Center, to identify unregistered voters with full knowledge that the organization’s mailing list might have included ineligible individuals."

KEN BUCK SENDS LETTER TO DOJ ASKING FOR INVESTIGATION INTO FUNDING OR RECENT RIOTS

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Buck added, "The American people deserve to know that the 2020 election will be conducted in a fair and transparent manner. As such, I urge the DOJ and FEC to open an investigation into the Colorado Secretary of State’s efforts to register individuals who are ineligible to vote. Thank you in advance for your consideration of this urgent request."

He also provided Fox News with a statement about the incident on Wednesday afternoon.

"These reports that Secretary Griswold's office has sent postcards encouraging people to register to vote who are otherwise ineligible to vote in this year's elections are deeply concerning," the statement read. "What is more concerning is simply the unknown scope of these errors. Today, I'm calling on Secretary Griswold to release the full list that these postcards went to, as well as, work with my staff and walk them through the process for how this registration campaign was compiled and executed -- specifically identifying how the reported issues may have come to be and what steps are being taken to correct those mistakes.

"I have received many emails from Republicans across Colorado concerned about this issue and would like to hear how Secretary Griswold plans to avoid this issue from happening again," Buck continued. "I am confident in the security of Colorado's election system, but I need to hear more about the source of this problem, so we can assure Coloradans that there isn't more to this story than originally reported."

Buck had an exchange with Griswold on Twitter on Tuesday after she accused him of spreading voter misinformation when he shared an article about her alleged activities. She responded by likening his efforts to Russia, prompting Buck to say he was surprised she hasn't registered Russians to vote illegally yet within the United States.

"Russia doesn't have to worry about spreading election misinformation in Colorado.@buckforColorado is doing it for them," she tweeted.

"I’m surprised you haven’t tried to send ballots to Russians trying to register them to vote in Colorado," he replied.

Fox News reached out to Griswold for a statement and her office issued the following reply.

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“It’s a shame that Congressman Buck and the Colorado GOP are complicit in the President’s efforts to spread misinformation and discredit Colorado’s election model," the statement read. "This partisan, politically-motivated attack from the Colorado GOP is an attempt to undermine confidence in our elections by fear-mongering and spreading debunked election misinformation."

She added, "As in past years, the postcard mailing list is provided by the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a national bipartisan election organization which uses records from the DMV to help identify potentially eligible individuals. The list is compared to other information, such as the Social Security Death Index to remove people from the mailing. The mailing list is not the same as Colorado's voter rolls, as by definition it targets unregistered people."