At least 88 percent of the approximately 1,400 suspected noncitizens run through a federal database by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office were determined to be U.S. citizens, and are therefore eligible to vote.

The office is looking further at the remaining roughly 168 people, but that list may also include people who are citizens, said Michael Hagihara of the state’s elections division.

The results of the checks so far were released during a public hearing on how Secretary of State Scott Gessler’s office will notify suspected noncitizens and conduct hearings on whether they should be removed from Colorado’s voter rolls.

Martha Tierney, an attorney who represents the Colorado Democratic Party, noted that the number of voters still in question equals less than one-hundredth of 1 percent of Colorado’s approximately 3.5 million registered voters.

“This appears to be a solution searching for a problem,” she said.

But Deputy Secretary if State Suzanne Staiert said there is good reason to move forward.

“We are trying to maintain the integrity of the rolls,” she said.

Gessler’s office mailed letters to about 3,900 suspected noncitizens earlier this month, asking them to prove their citizenship or voluntarily withdraw their voter registration.

The office was only able to check 1,400 of those names in the federal database because it only had alien registration numbers — which were required to run the check — for those people, said Richard Coolidge, director of communication for Gessler’s office.

Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661, sburnett@denverpost.com or twitter.com/sara_burnett