New York Times: Thousands of Coloradans illegally purged from voter rolls

Tens of thousands of voters in Colorado and five other swing states appear to have been illegally removed from voter registration lists or prevented from registering, according to the New York Times.

Colorado appears to have violated a federal law prohibiting states from removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election unless voters die, notify the state that they have moved out of state, or are declared unfit to vote, the Times reported.

The state of Colorado removed about 37,000 people from voting rolls in the three weeks after July 21, the Times reported. But in that time, about 5,100 Coloradans moved out of state, and about 2,400 died, according to the Times.

Despite a population increase in Colorado and a flurry of voter registration drives this year, nearly 100,000 fewer Coloradans are registered to vote since 2004, the Times reported.

The Times noted that these actions don't appear to be intentionally caused by elections officials nor coordinated by any political party, but rather have been apparently caused by mistakes as states attempt to comply with the 2002 Help America Vote Act.

State elections officials may be wrongly removing voters who have moved elsewhere in the state or are labeled inactive because they failed to vote in two consecutive federal elections, elections experts told the Times.

But because Democrats have been more aggressively registering voters in Colorado - records show more than 116,000 have registered as Democrats since January, compared with a little more than 34,000 newly registered Republicans - increased screening of new applications may disproportionately hurt Democrats. It may also spark confusion and heated arguments from voters of all political stripes on Election Day, according to the Times.

Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman's office did not respond to a request for comment by the Times.