Federal agencies are hostile to voter rights. Voters can push back.
An election worker stacks “I Voted” stickers at the Denver Elections Division on Super Tuesday in Denver, March 5, 2024. Kevin (Mohatt for Colorado Newsline)
Voters in Colorado for decades could be confident their information was secure in the hands of election officials. The behavior of the Trump administration puts that confidence in doubt.
The administration is rifling through voter rolls obtained from states, including Colorado, in a nefarious search for noncitizen voters, even though the purported phenomenon of noncitizen voting is virtually nonexistent. The exercise is really a bad-faith voter suppression effort directed by President Donald Trump and undertaken amid a raft of administration attempts to undermine elections.
While Colorado election officials have taken steps to defend the state’s election system, which experts often laud as the “gold standard,” individual voters can take an active role in protecting their own rights. Authoritarians want the people to be pliant, but Coloradans can refuse to bend.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The Trump administration’s election saboteurs have made Colorado its primary target. Starting in May, the U.S. Department of Justice demanded that states hand over election information, including detailed voter lists and other sensitive data. Colorado received the most sweeping request. A top Justice Department official, citing an unspecified allegation of election record “noncompliance,” demanded that Jena Griswold, the Colorado secretary of state, supply “all records” related to the 2024 election.
At least 36 states received demands for election records, and all 50 states reportedly can expect to receive one. The administration’s mass compilation of voter data might violate federal privacy law, say some election law scholars.
Some state election officials have welcomed the demands. The Republican secretaries of state in Indiana and Alabama have agreed to work with federal immigration officials to search for noncitizens in their own voter rolls. But others have rebuffed the administration.
Every Colorado voter should apply for confidential status.
New Hampshire’s Republican secretary of state David Scanlan, citing a state prohibition, said he wasn’t authorized to provide the Justice Department with his state’s voter roll. Maine’s Democratic secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, has been the most outspoken election official in rejecting the administration’s attempts to gather voter information. Her response to the DOJ: “Go jump in the Gulf of Maine.”
The administration’s true aim is to subvert democracy, many election experts argue.
“This isn’t just a clear violation of voter privacy — it’s a major federal overreach and an attempt by a corrupt Department of Justice to attack Trump’s political opponents and undermine our electoral process,” said Ariel Hayes, the executive director of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of States.
Griswold agrees.
“I think the bigger picture is Donald Trump is continuing to try and rewrite the 2020 election and destabilize the ’26 and ’28 elections,” Griswold told Stateline in July.
However, Colorado did turn over some data to the administration. This comprised two copies of the state’s master voter list — one from 2022 and one from May — and one copy of the master voter history list dating from after the election in November, according to Jack Todd, a spokesperson for the secretary of state.
This is all public information. It includes the names of voters, their residential addresses, birth year, and, if provided by the voter, phone numbers. It does not include a voter’s social security number, driver’s license number, month and day of birth, signature or email address.
Members of the public can buy the statewide voter list and the voter history list for $50 each, but the state gave it to the Department of Justice for free. Unlike elsewhere, such as New Hampshire, where state law precluded release of voter information to the administration, Colorado was legally bound to supply the information, Todd said.
Earlier this month, the administration confirmed that the Justice Department had shared state election data with the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to “scrub aliens from voter rolls.”
Colorado election officials were dismayed by this development.
“DHS has provided conflicting information on this subject,” Todd said in an email. “Earlier this month, Secretaries of State were told by a DHS official that the DHS has not received voter data and would not use such data — shortly before the opposite was reported. The Department is extremely concerned by this communication and that DHS may be actively misleading to election officials.”
Now that their information is exposed to federal agencies that are hostile to their rights, Coloradans can push back. Every Colorado voter should apply for confidential status. The state allows voters to restrict release of their information if they attest to fear of harassment or bodily harm. All Coloradans can now demonstrate a credible risk of harassment from their own federal government, and they can substantiate that fear simply by citing multiple statements from Griswold.
“Trump is abusing his power in an attempt to make it harder for voters to fight back at the ballot box,” she said in April.
“What they’re going to do with all this data, I don’t know … But I’m sure they will use it to push their ridiculous disinformation and lies to the American public,” she said in June.
More than 109,000 Coloradans are already confidential voters. Confidential status might not help voters who appear on the lists already transferred to the administration, but it could protect new voters, and it could safeguard the Colorado electorate if administration mischief persists into the 2028 presidential election cycle.
Coloradans should also monitor their voter status. A page on the secretary of state’s website allows them to check their registration and verify it’s active.
The administration’s demand for voter information is just one aspect of its wide-ranging efforts to make elections less free and fair. Trump is attempting to eliminate mail-in ballots — the kind of ballot that goes to every active voter in Colorado every election. Trump’s recent deployment of National Guard troops to areas of the country led by Democrats is seen by some, such as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, as a prelude to military patrols around polls next year.
How can people respond to such intimidation?
“Speak up, megaphones and microphones, however you can, and make sure you show up and are absolutely focused on getting to the ballot box and voting,” Pritzker said.
That’s more advice Colorado voters should heed.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
by Quentin Young, Colorado Newsline
September 25, 2025
by Quentin Young, Colorado Newsline
September 25, 2025
Voters in Colorado for decades could be confident their information was secure in the hands of election officials. The behavior of the Trump administration puts that confidence in doubt.
The administration is rifling through voter rolls obtained from states, including Colorado, in a nefarious search for noncitizen voters, even though the purported phenomenon of noncitizen voting is virtually nonexistent. The exercise is really a bad-faith voter suppression effort directed by President Donald Trump and undertaken amid a raft of administration attempts to undermine elections.
While Colorado election officials have taken steps to defend the state’s election system, which experts often laud as the “gold standard,” individual voters can take an active role in protecting their own rights. Authoritarians want the people to be pliant, but Coloradans can refuse to bend.
The Trump administration’s election saboteurs have made Colorado its primary target. Starting in May, the U.S. Department of Justice demanded that states hand over election information, including detailed voter lists and other sensitive data. Colorado received the most sweeping request. A top Justice Department official, citing an unspecified allegation of election record “noncompliance,” demanded that Jena Griswold, the Colorado secretary of state, supply “all records” related to the 2024 election.
At least 36 states received demands for election records, and all 50 states reportedly can expect to receive one. The administration’s mass compilation of voter data might violate federal privacy law, say some election law scholars.
Some state election officials have welcomed the demands. The Republican secretaries of state in Indiana and Alabama have agreed to work with federal immigration officials to search for noncitizens in their own voter rolls. But others have rebuffed the administration.
Every Colorado voter should apply for confidential status.
New Hampshire’s Republican secretary of state David Scanlan, citing a state prohibition, said he wasn’t authorized to provide the Justice Department with his state’s voter roll. Maine’s Democratic secretary of state, Shenna Bellows, has been the most outspoken election official in rejecting the administration’s attempts to gather voter information. Her response to the DOJ: “Go jump in the Gulf of Maine.”
The administration’s true aim is to subvert democracy, many election experts argue.
“This isn’t just a clear violation of voter privacy — it’s a major federal overreach and an attempt by a corrupt Department of Justice to attack Trump’s political opponents and undermine our electoral process,” said Ariel Hayes, the executive director of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of States.
Griswold agrees.
“I think the bigger picture is Donald Trump is continuing to try and rewrite the 2020 election and destabilize the ’26 and ’28 elections,” Griswold told Stateline in July.
However, Colorado did turn over some data to the administration. This comprised two copies of the state’s master voter list — one from 2022 and one from May — and one copy of the master voter history list dating from after the election in November, according to Jack Todd, a spokesperson for the secretary of state.
This is all public information. It includes the names of voters, their residential addresses, birth year, and, if provided by the voter, phone numbers. It does not include a voter’s social security number, driver’s license number, month and day of birth, signature or email address.
Members of the public can buy the statewide voter list and the voter history list for $50 each, but the state gave it to the Department of Justice for free. Unlike elsewhere, such as New Hampshire, where state law precluded release of voter information to the administration, Colorado was legally bound to supply the information, Todd said.
Earlier this month, the administration confirmed that the Justice Department had shared state election data with the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to “scrub aliens from voter rolls.”
Colorado election officials were dismayed by this development.
“DHS has provided conflicting information on this subject,” Todd said in an email. “Earlier this month, Secretaries of State were told by a DHS official that the DHS has not received voter data and would not use such data — shortly before the opposite was reported. The Department is extremely concerned by this communication and that DHS may be actively misleading to election officials.”
Now that their information is exposed to federal agencies that are hostile to their rights, Coloradans can push back. Every Colorado voter should apply for confidential status. The state allows voters to restrict release of their information if they attest to fear of harassment or bodily harm. All Coloradans can now demonstrate a credible risk of harassment from their own federal government, and they can substantiate that fear simply by citing multiple statements from Griswold.
“Trump is abusing his power in an attempt to make it harder for voters to fight back at the ballot box,” she said in April.
“What they’re going to do with all this data, I don’t know … But I’m sure they will use it to push their ridiculous disinformation and lies to the American public,” she said in June.
More than 109,000 Coloradans are already confidential voters. Confidential status might not help voters who appear on the lists already transferred to the administration, but it could protect new voters, and it could safeguard the Colorado electorate if administration mischief persists into the 2028 presidential election cycle.
Coloradans should also monitor their voter status. A page on the secretary of state’s website allows them to check their registration and verify it’s active.
The administration’s demand for voter information is just one aspect of its wide-ranging efforts to make elections less free and fair. Trump is attempting to eliminate mail-in ballots — the kind of ballot that goes to every active voter in Colorado every election. Trump’s recent deployment of National Guard troops to areas of the country led by Democrats is seen by some, such as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, as a prelude to military patrols around polls next year.
How can people respond to such intimidation?
“Speak up, megaphones and microphones, however you can, and make sure you show up and are absolutely focused on getting to the ballot box and voting,” Pritzker said.
That’s more advice Colorado voters should heed.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.
Quentin Young is the editor of Colorado Newsline.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
© Colorado Newsline, 2026
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Colorado Newsline provides fair and accurate reporting on politics, policy and other stories of interest to Coloradans. Newsline is based in Denver, and coverage of activities at the Capitol are central to its mission, but its reporters are devoted to providing reliable information about topics that concern readers in all parts of the state, from Lamar to Dinosaur, from Durango to Sterling.
We’re part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. (See full republishing guidelines.)
© Colorado Newsline, 2026
Colorado voters should go confidential – Colorado Newsline
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