DENVER, Colo. — The U.S. Department of Justice is demanding that Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold turn over “all records” related to the 2024 federal elections, a request many election experts call unprecedented.
Our partners in Denver are working to find out why the DOJ wants the records. Election leaders across the state say they are still trying to make sense of the request.
“Well, it's certainly an unusual request,” said Matt Crane, the executive director of the Colorado County Clerk’s Association. “I've been in elections here in Colorado for 25 years. I don't remember any request from the federal government this expansive coming in.”
Crane said the DOJ’s request for records is so broad, it could mean many things.
“It could be anything from voter registration information, voter turnout information. It could be information from the voting system access and activity logs from inside the voting system software. It could be the actual ballots themselves,” said Crane.
In its letter to the state, which NPR obtained, the DOJ said it had received a complaint about Colorado’s election records retention.
The DOJ also asked the Secretary of State's Office to retain records it still has from the 2020 election. According to Crane, Colorado law requires election records to be maintained for 25 months, which is three months longer than the 22 months required under federal law. Either way, he said most 2020 election records are probably gone.
"Most, if not all, counties have destroyed all of those records now from the 2020 election," said Crane. "Now, certainly from the 2024 election, counties are still in the process of retaining those until that retention period expires."
Denver7 followed up with the DOJ on Thursday and asked why they were seeking the election records. Two department spokespeople told Denver7 they had no comment.
“I'm sure the DOJ gets lots of requests or lots of complaints from people about elections from across the country,” said Crane. “Why this complaint? Why now?”
Crane suspects it has something to do with Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk and 2020 election denier who’s currently serving a 9-year sentence for allowing a man to access voting equipment. Peters isn’t mentioned in the Justice Department’s letter.
“When we get this kind of request asking for election records, when it's something that she's been putting out in the public square, as her supporters have, we think it's pretty fair to say that it has something to do with that,” said Crane.
Last month, in a post on Truth Social, Trump called Peters “an innocent political prisoner” and directed the DOJ to take action to secure her release.
“Donald Trump has weaponized his Department of Justice, targeting his perceived enemies and meddling in state cases to try and free those who supported his big election lie,” said Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. “I will always follow the law and protect our democracy, and won’t be intimidated by this baseless inquiry. Colorado runs the best elections in the nation and complies with all federal and local laws in doing so.”
Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez, who’s running for Colorado Secretary of State, also thinks the DOJ’s request is political.
“This absolutely is not about election security. It's not about voter confidence,” said Gonzalez. “It really does feel like a politically motivated fishing expedition.”
According to NPR, the Colorado Secretary of State's Office provided some publicly available files to the DOJ, but it's not clear if that will satisfy its request. Crane said most election records aren’t in the custody of the Secretary of State’s Office.
“The Secretary of State will have some of the data, some of the voter registration, from a statewide perspective they can provide, but most of this data is in each of the 64 counties who actually run the elections for their county,” said Crane. “Counties have not received an inquiry yet, at least as of right now, from the Department of Justice. This has just gone to the Secretary of State's Office, but they don't have a lot of those records, so they won't be able to fulfill that request.”
Gonzalez said if Jefferson County receives a request from the DOJ for election records, she will work with her legal team to ensure the law is followed.
“I want to be absolutely clear that we will not be proactively handing over any data to anyone,” said Gonzalez. “Our voters trust us to protect their elections from interference, and whether that's from foreign actors, domestic threats, or an administration that thinks it's above the law, we need to be protecting voters.”
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