DOJ requests Colorado's 2024, 2020 voting records: ‘Highly unusual and concerning'
DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado's Secretary of State revealed Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Justice asked Colorado to turn over all records that relate to the 2024 federal elections and preserve all records from the 2020 election.
The election official sent an email highlighting reporting by NPR, which said the DOJ request was made on May 12.
Colorado elections official: Executive order amounts to voter suppression, poll tax
'What they're going to do with all this data, I don't know,' Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, told NPR and shared with FOX31 via email. 'But I'm sure they will use it to push their ridiculous disinformation and lies to the American public.'
Colorado's elections have been heralded by Griswold and other officials as being the 'gold standard' of elections for the nation. The news comes on the heels of the Justice Department trying to insert itself into the case of former Mesa County election clerk Tina Peters.
Peters has asked to be released from prison while she appeals her conviction, citing her physical and mental health condition, all while trying to capture a pardon from President Donald Trump.
Peters was convicted of allowing Trump supporters access to election equipment after his 2020 defeat. She was sentenced to nine years behind bars in October after continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines, even alleging that the secretary of state ordered an illegal deletion of records, but those claims have never been found credible.
Jurors found Peters guilty in August for using someone else's security badge to give an expert affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell access to the Mesa County election system and deceiving other officials about that person's identity. Lindell is a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from Trump and is currently standing trial in Denver.
Additionally, in October 2024, the Colorado Republican Party revealed that the Secretary of State's website showed partial passwords for election systems in 63 of Colorado's 64 counties. The passwords were posted for months in a hidden tab on the website, according to an investigation, but posed no risk to the election.
After the leak, the passwords were updated and the security of voting machines was verified. However, the GOP accused Griswold of quietly trying to fix the matter and called for her resignation.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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