RNC Sues Colorado’s TDS-Afflicted Elections Chief

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who served as head cheerleader in the left’s failed attempt to keep Donald Trump off her state’s 2024 Republican primary ballot, now faces a lawsuit alleging she broke the state constitution in permitting non-residents who have never lived in Colorado to vote in its elections. 

Griswold, the leftist tool of the far-left machine that defiled the U.S. Constitution, is now accused of ignoring the Centennial State’s charter. 

“Yet again, Democrats are trying to let people vote in a state where they’ve never lived,” Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said in a statement. “Jena Griswold is ignoring Colorado’s Constitution and allowing non-residents to cast ballots in Colorado elections.”

‘Residency is not Inherited’ 

The RNC filed the lawsuit on Friday in Denver District Court, joined by Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colo., and Douglas County Clerk and Recorder Sheri Davis. According to the court filing, the action seeks an injunction against Griswold, a Democrat with a checkered record on the law running for Colorado attorney general. A primary election is slated for Tuesday. 

“In direct contravention of this constitutional command, the Colorado Secretary of State has issued guidance permitting individuals who have never resided in the United States, let alone in Colorado, to register and vote in Colorado elections based solely on the residency of a parent, legal guardian, or spouse,” the lawsuit states. 

Griswold notes as much in a Uniformed and Overseas Electors Frequently Asked Questions page on the Secretary of State’s website.

Griswold’s guidance follows a bad state law, the lawsuit asserts, that also permits voters who have never lived in Colorado to vote in the state’s elections. The law and Griswold’s guidance are in “direct conflict with the residency requirements set forth in Article VII of the Colorado Constitution,” the complaint asserts. 

“Residency is not inherited and cannot be established by proxy. An individual who has never personally made Colorado his or her home has not ‘resided in this state’ within the meaning of Article VII of the Colorado Constitution,” the lawsuit states. “It follows that Colo. Rev. Stat. § 1-8.3- 102(2)(d) and the Secretary’s published UOCAVA guidance implementing it are contrary to the Colorado Constitution.”

There clearly is a residency requirement in voter eligibility in the Centennial State’s supreme laws. 

As a county clerk, Davis is bound by Colorado law and the secretary of state’s instructions. The lawsuit asserts David tried to reconcile Griswold’s guidance with the state’s constitution “but finds she cannot.” She is put in a position to make a choice between following the constitution or the secretary’s instructions, the lawsuit charges. 

Davis isn’t simply Douglas County’s clerk; she’s a Douglas County voter who has voted and intends to do so in future elections, the lawsuit states. She has a “direct, personal, and substantial interest in ensuring that her vote counts and is not diluted by the inclusion of constitutionally ineligible voters.” 

As an incumbent candidate for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District seat, Crank’s electoral interests “are directly and concretely injured by the state law and Griswold’s guidance.”

“The unlawful registration of never-resident voters harms the Candidate by depriving him of an election conducted under lawful rules, undermining the political legitimacy of any winning candidate, and forcing the Candidate to compete in an election in which unqualified voters are participating,” the complaint states. 

‘Never Resided in the United States’ 

The lawsuit is the latest in a string of RNC legal challenges of legally suspect voter eligibility requirements under the application of the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). The 40-year-old law lays out voter registration and voting procedures for military and other uniformed personnel absent from their established state residence, as well as certain American civilians living overseas but previously domiciled in the United States. 

Under UOCAVA, the nonresidents have limited rights to vote in federal elections in the state in which they previously resided. As the lawsuit states, however, the law otherwise defers to state prerogatives to “prescribe substantive prerequisites for voting in both federal and state elections.” That doesn’t mean language in state constitutions should be ignored, the complaint asserts. 

Republican lawmakers have introduced congressional bills that would end the loophole of voting allowances for a “never resident,” as the RNC lawsuit describes the overseas U.S. citizen. 

As The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman reported, UOCAVA would grant an individual born to American parents the right to vote in elections held in his parents’ former home state even though he has never resided in the United States.  

That loophole allows an untold number of voters to vote in major swing states where they have no connection, Lyman wrote, including people with no sense of allegiance to the United States. 

Nearly 40 states and Washington, D.C., allow military citizens who have “never resided in the U.S.” to cast ballots if a parent or legal guardian last registered in that state. The Proving Residency for Overseas Voter Eligibility (PROVE) Act would tighten up the loose requirements that have permitted untold numbers of never residents to vote in U.S. elections. 

The RNC’s Colorado lawsuit also seeks the removal from the state’s voter rolls overseas-residing citizens who have never lived in the state.

‘Especially the Presidency’

Griswold faced an impeachment threat after she vehemently advocated for the left-led Colorado Supreme Court to kick Trump off the state’s primary ballot based on a politically twisted interpretation of the 14th Amendment. The court determined that Trump was guilty of insurrection connected to his speech in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol despite the fact that he had not been convicted — and never has been — of such a charge. 

The U.S. Supreme Court later unanimously reversed the ruling, clarifying that, “States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency.” 

Weeks before the 2024 presidential election, a U.S. District Court issued an order demanding the secretary of state release Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) reports suspected of containing dead registrants on the state’s voter rolls. The reports, according to a settlement, include individuals who may have died within the past three years. 

North Carolina Finding

The RNC also filed a “never resident” lawsuit in Nebraska last week.  

Late last month, a North Carolina court ruled that the North Carolina Board of Elections violated the state constitution with a directive that permitted the class of voter to register and vote in federal elections in the Tar Heel State. The North Carolina Supreme Court earlier had found nonresidents could not vote in state elections. 

“The North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision was clear: individuals who do not live — and have never lived — in North Carolina are not allowed to choose who represents the people of the state,” the RNC said in a press release. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.