Secretary Williams' statement on disbanded voter commission

DENVER, Jan. 3, 2018 -- The following is a statement from Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams regarding President Trump's decision today to dissolve a White House commission looking into voting processes:

"The commission requested states' public voter roll data. As we said in our July 14 letter to the commission, there are far better ways to effectively assess the accuracy of voter rolls and voter integrity than looking at publicly available data. We are always happy to work with other states, which have the authority over elections, on voter roll accuracy."

Colorado provided the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity only information that is public record and is available to all requesting parties under state law: names, addresses, year of birth, party affiliation and elections in which the voter participated. The office did not provide any confidential information, such as full dates of births, Social Security numbers or signatures.

Williams has long maintained that Colorado's elections are safe and secure.

"Our office works closely with Colorado's 64 county clerks to ensure election integrity. We just completed the nation's first statewide risk-limiting audit designed to catch mistakes when ballots are tabulated. The effort attracted national attention because such audits are regarded as a way of ensuring election integrity."

In disbanding the commission, Trump asked the Department of Homeland Security to look into voter fraud issues. The Colorado Secretary of State's office has worked closely with Homeland Security on election integrity issues under both the Obama and Trump administrations.