Records containing personal information on more than 150,000 voters are missing at city election offices, and officials are trying to determine if the files were lost, moved or stolen.
The Denver Election Commission is also trying to figure out why officials didn't learn the records were missing until June 1, even though they are believed to have disappeared nearly four months earlier.
"We will get to the bottom of it," commission spokesman Alton Dillard told the Rocky Mountain News in Saturday's editions.
Police were notified about the missing records Saturday. The microfilmed voter registration files from 1989 to 1998 were in a 500-pound cabinet that disappeared when the commission moved to new offices in February. The files contain voters' Social Security numbers, addresses and other personal information.
Dillard said election staffers are scouring the commission's new and old offices and its warehouse. He said employees of the moving company, which was bonded, are also being questioned.
Also missing was a box with cards signed by voters who cast early ballots. The cards contain names, birth dates, addresses, signatures and partial Social Security numbers.
The missing files were first reported May 31 on a Web log run by Lisa Jones, a former temporary worker at the election commission. Officials said City Councilwoman Judy Montero saw the blog and told them about it the next day.
Jones said she believes commission officials knew of the lost files by April.
Dillard said top officials of the commission are trying to determine whether lower-ranking staff knew about the situation before last week.
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