DENVER — A postal worker and her friend were arrested Wednesday in connection with forging stolen ballots in an alleged attempt to test the security of Colorado’s voting system, court documents show.
Mail carrier Vicki Lyn Stuart and Sally Jane Maxedon were arrested on suspicion of identity theft, attempting to influence a public official and forgery, according to their arrest affidavits. The lawsuits do not yet list attorneys representing them. Neither has yet been formally charged.
In a statement, 21st District Attorney Dan Rubinstein’s office said its investigators began investigating Oct. 21 after residents who had never submitted a ballot or ever received a ballot in the mail were notified that their ballots were not being counted due to discrepancies with their signatures.
Colorado overwhelmingly votes by mail, which officials tout as a safe and convenient method that avoids long lines and last-minute problems on Election Day. The ballots are sent by mail to voters, who can return them by mail or drop them off at the ballot boxes. Election workers check the signatures on the ballot envelopes with the signatures of voters they have on file to ensure they were submitted by the voter to whom the ballot was mailed.
The investigation into the stolen and counterfeit ballots was announced last month by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold.
At the time, she said at least 12 mail-in ballots in Mesa County were stolen and sent with fraudulent votes, three of which slipped past county election officials and were counted toward the election that ended Tuesday. Because the ballots themselves are not signed, there is no way to identify them once they are removed from the signature envelope.
According to arrest affidavits, the victims are still being located and confirmed, and investigators believe there may be more than 20 people whose ballots were stolen.
Mesa County is where former County Clerk Tina Peters was recently convicted to prison over a data breach scheme stemming from false claims of voter machine fraud during the 2020 presidential race.