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Colorado Voter Registration Tables

This page contains tables describing the voter registration system of Colorado. A full explanation of the table properties can be found in our paper, A Systematization of Voter Registration Security.

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Jurisdictional Parameters

Parameter Value
$p_{\rm elig}$: the voter eligibility criteria To be eligible to vote, you must be:

• A U.S. Citizen
• 16 years of age, but you must be at least 17 years old to vote in a primary election if you will be 18 years old or older before the next General election.
• 16 years of age, but you must be at least 18 years old to vote in any other election
• A Colorado resident for at least 22 days before an election
• Not serving a sentence for a felony conviction
$p_{\rm reg-acts}$: Required actions from the voter in order to register None (for automatic voter registration), otherwise submit voter registration application
$p_{\rm reg-methods}$: List of registration methods Online, email, fax, mail, in person
$p_{\rm voter-info}$: Types of voter information that are collected and stored See Access Control Policy Table
$p_{\rm freeze-reg}$: Period before election during which new registrations are not allowed 8 days before election (mail/online), up to and on election day (in person). County election officials may choose to process registrations submitted later than 8 days.
$p_{\rm freeze-db}$: Period before election during which systemic registration removals or other maintenance are not allowed 90 days
$p_{\rm keep-logs}$: Period after an election for which a snapshot and activity logs of the VRDB for that election are kept At least 2 years
$p_{\rm elig}$: Voter authentication criteria: How voters are authenticated for various stages of the VRDB process (registering to vote, updating voter registration record, checking in at a pollbook) Updating record: Date of birth/driver's license number or last 4 digits of social security number, signature
Looking up record online: Name, zip code, date of birth
Checking in at pollbook: 1 form of ID
Vote by mail: signature, if first time may need to provide copy of ID

Sources:

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/rule_making/files/2021/20210617ElectionRules8CCR1505-1.pdf

https://casetext.com/statute/colorado-revised-statutes/title-1-elections/general-primary-recall-and-congressional-vacancy-elections/article-2-qualifications-and-registration-of-electors/part-5-mail-registration-and-registrationat-voter-registration-agencies/section-1-2-510-public-disclosure-of-voter-registration-activities

Access Control Policy

The access control policy determines which entities can access certain fields. We represent the access control policy as a table that maps entities to registration fields, with binary values in each cell denoting whether the entity in that row is allowed to view the data point in that column, for any voter.

*: hidden for address confidentiality program and confidential voters

†: only accessible by designated address confidentiality program election staff

‡: hashed before sending to ERIC

Category Entity Name Home address Mailing address Year of birth Full Date of birth Telephone number Email address Driver's license / ID card number Full SSN SSN last 4 digits Political Party affiliation Date of affiliation Gender identity Signature Voting activity history
REGISTER/UPDATE Voter being registered ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ X ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
VRDB ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ X ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Online registration/update portal ✓ ✓* ✓* ✓ ✓ ✓* ✓ ✓ X ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
DMV (when registering) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ X ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
County clerk ✓ ✓† ✓† ✓ ✓ ✓† ✓ ✓ X ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
USE REG TO VOTE County official at polling place ✓ ✓† ✓† ✓ ✓ ✓† X ✓ X X ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ X
County official processing mail-in ballots ✓ ✓† ✓† ✓ ✓ ✓† X ✓ X X ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ X
LIST MAINTENANCE NCOA X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Department of Revenue X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
ERIC ✓ ✓ ✓ X ✓‡ ✓ ✓‡ ✓‡ X ✓ X X X X ✓
TRANSPARENCY The public ✓ ✓* ✓* ✓ X ✓* X X X X ✓ ✓ ✓ X ✓

Sources:

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/access-to-and-use-of-voter-registration-lists.aspx

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/FAQs/VoterRegistrationData.html

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/vote/VoterRegFormEnglish.pdf

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/LawsRules/committeeFiles/BEAClistMaintenance.pdf

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/FAQs/VoterRegistrationFAQ.html

https://dcs.colorado.gov/acp/about-the-acp

System Change Control Policy

Colorado does not publish information related to the system change control policy. See here for a template table.

Data Change Control Policy

The data change control policy includes information about the entities involved in updating the VRDB or associated policies. We represent the data change control policy as a table that specifies the entities allowed to authorize/start updates, trigger updates (send updated data to election officials), and execute the update (directly modify the data inside the VRDB). In this table, we map these entities to the type of data they update, and if there is a notification involved in this type of update.

Category Entity Type of Data
Authorization Voter Personal data
State and county election officials Data from list maintenance update
Trigger Online update portal Data from voter who started update
Mail Data from voter who started update
ERIC Data of voters in other states
Department of Revenue (DMV) Data of new/updated license
NCOA Data of voter move
Department of Public Health and Environment, Social Security Death Index Data of death
Colorado Department of Corrections, Colorado U.S. Attorney's office Voters who committed crime
Execution State election officials
County election officials

Voter Data Use Policy

The voter data use policy specifies limitations on how (and by whom) the data can be used.

Category Value
Prohibited uses Not specified
Approved entities Public
Information released See access control policy table
Opt out policy Address Confidentiality Program (ACP) participants

Sources:

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/access-to-and-use-of-voter-registration-lists.aspx

Voter Notification Policy

The voter notification policy governs how jurisidictions notify voters of various changes to their records. We represent the voter notification policies as a table mapping notification reasons to notification protocols and methods.

Notification reason Notification protocol Notification methods
Incomplete registration Send notice via notification methods Mail, Email (by county)
New registration Send notice via notification methods. If returned as undeliverable, do not register. If not returned as undeliverable, register. Mail, Email (by county)
Inactive registration Send elector voter confirmation card at least 60 days before election via notification methods. If not returned or not marked undeliverable, and voter has not voted in two general elections, cancel registration. Mail, Email (by county)
Address change Send notice to new address. Mail, Email (by county)
Cancelled registration None N/A

Sources:

https://casetext.com/statute/colorado-revised-statutes/title-1-elections/general-primary-recall-and-congressional-vacancy-elections/article-2-qualifications-and-registration-of-electors/part-5-mail-registration-and-registrationat-voter-registration-agencies/section-1-2-509-reviewing-voter-registration-applications-notification

https://casetext.com/statute/colorado-revised-statutes/title-1-elections/general-primary-recall-and-congressional-vacancy-elections/article-2-qualifications-and-registration-of-electors/part-5-mail-registration-and-registrationat-voter-registration-agencies

Maintenance Policy

The maintenence policy governs how jurisdictions keep their VRDB accurate and up-to-date. We represent the voter maintenance policy as a table mapping maintenance reasons and their associated data sources to maintenance thresholds and actions.

Reason Data source Threshold Action
New driver's license or updated address Department of Revenue New driver's license or updated address Register voter or update existing record
Moved in state NCOA Address changes in state Update address
Moved out of state NCOA / ERIC Address changes out of state Mark inactive -- NCOA
Returned mail County Returned mail Mark inactive -- returned mail
Undeliverable ballot County Ballot could not be delivered Mark inactive -- undeliverable ballot
Voter inactivity VRDB Has not voted in past two elections Mark inactive; cancel reg after two more inactive elections
Death Department of Public Health and Environment, Social Security Death Index Voter dies Cancel registration - deceased
Crime Colorado Department of Corrections, Colorado U.S. Attorney's office Voter currently incarcerated for a felony conviction Cancel registration - convicted felon

Sources:

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/LawsRules/committeeFiles/BEAClistMaintenance.pdf

https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/voter-list-accuracy.aspx

https://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/rule_making/files/2021/20210617ElectionRules8CCR1505-1.pdf

Oversight Policy

The oversight policy governs how third parties can review information in the VRDB. We represent the oversight policy as a table mapping oversight entities to the type of voter data and other information they can access, along with time periods for oversight.

Designated auditor Voter data VRDB logs VRDB code Interactive access Time periods
Nonprofit Yes, as public in accordance with access control policy No No No Continuously
Political organization Yes, as public in accordance with access control policy No No No Continuously
Third party pentester No Yes Yes Yes Over 90 days before election
VoteShield Yes, as public in accordance with access control policy No No No Continuously
Department of State Yes Yes N/A N/A Continuously