Complaints allege state employee sold election data

The Denver County District Attorney's Office will wait for a state auditor's report before deciding whether to investigate two complaints that allege an employee and political ally of Secretary of State Mike Coffman sold election data for personal gain.

Lynn Kimbrough, a spokeswoman for Denver DA Mitch Morrissey, said the deputy DA in charge of such reviews wants to wait for the auditor's report.

"It seemed like we might well be duplicating efforts if he were to begin a formal review before the audit was complete," Kimbrough said. On Friday, a nonprofit called Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government asked Morrissey to investigate whether Coffman and his onetime technology manager Dan Kopelman, who has since been moved to another job in the secretary of state's office, violated any laws.

The request is similar to one made earlier this year by the political blog progressnow.org. But CCEG also included e-mails it had obtained through an Open Records Act request.

CCEG Director Chantell Taylor said she had hoped the DA would not wait because the auditor's report won't look at the same issues as a criminal investigation and because Kopelman continues to work for the secretary of state.

Coffman reassigned Kopelman out of the elections division in May after reports disclosed Kopelman was offering Colorado voter data for sale on his Web site, -politicallivewires.com.

Coffman spokesman Jonathan Tee said Coffman was unaware of the business and ordered it shut down as soon as he learned of it.

Taylor said Coffman's claim that he was unaware of Kopelman's side business is "disingenuous."

Tee also maintains Kopelman never had routine, unfettered access to the voter database.

Taylor contends the e-mails contradict that. She cites an exchange in which Coffman instructed Kopelman to do an inquiry like one done in Arizona in which 10 people were charged with voter fraud.

"What would be really compelling would be that somehow we could get a list of illegals who have been convicted of felonies and who are registered to vote," Coffman e-mailed Kopelman on April 30.

Kopelman replied that he would have to narrow down a list of 40,000 records with mismatched Social Security numbers to eliminate people who were simply making valid name changes.

Tee said other e-mails also released by Coffman's office prove that Kopelman did not have unrestricted access to voter records. Kopelman had to request the specific data before he was granted access, Tee said.

"He can only get that data, nothing else," Tee said. "This really proves the system worked."