Thousands of Colorado Ballots to Be Reexamined for Evidence of Fraud - Newsweek
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
CLOSE X By Alia Shoaib Freelance News Reporter
Thousands of votes already cast in Mesa County, Colorado, are being reexamined for fraud after election staff discovered at least a dozen fraudulent ballots.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a news conference on Thursday that a criminal probe had been launched in the county.
"It appears that as of now approximately a dozen voters in Mesa County had their ballots intercepted before they arrived to them and cast without their knowledge," she said.
The fraud was discovered during the signature verification process, when election staff compared signatures on the ballots to the voters' signatures on file. When voters were contacted about the rejected signatures, in a process known as "curing," election staff discovered that some of the ballots had been fraudulently filled out.
Voting by mail has become a contentious and politicized issue in recent years, largely driven by former President Donald Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent because of the practice.
Despite Trump's long-standing criticisms of voting by mail, he appears to have changed his tune ahead of the 2024 election and has encouraged his supporters to cast their ballots early and by mail.
An election worker sorting midterm election ballots at Mesa County Central Services in Grand Junction, Colorado, on November 8, 2022. Some ballots cast in the county ahead of the 2024 election have been found to...An election worker sorting midterm election ballots at Mesa County Central Services in Grand Junction, Colorado, on November 8, 2022. Some ballots cast in the county ahead of the 2024 election have been found to be fraudulent.JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty Images
In Colorado, one voter told county election staff that they had not received their ballot or voted. Another voter said they received a notification through the statewide ballot-tracking system, BallotTrax, saying their ballot had been received, but they had not received their ballot or voted.
When the Mesa County clerk's office began investigating, it found that some of the rejected ballots appeared to have been signed by the same person, Griswold said.
The findings were turned over to Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein's office, who initiated a criminal investigation.
In an email to Newsweek , the county district attorney declined to comment on the investigation.
Now, the county is reexamining all the mailed ballots it has received—almost 30,000, Colorado Newsline reported, citing an estimate from the county clerk.
Griswold said the affected voters would receive new ballots.
"Colorado's elections are safe and secure, and this attempt at fraud was found and investigated quickly because of groundbreaking tools that we have here," Griswold said in the news conference.
She referenced the signature verification process, ballot curing and the BallotTrax system.
All registered voters in Colorado receive ballots by mail, which they may return by mail or at a drop box or polling center.
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Seems like the system of checks and balances is working. I truly hope they find the person, or persons, responsible and they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Now watch some will say this is evidence that there will be wide spread Democratic fraud because of this instance, where the attempt to vote fraudulently did not work.
the western slope of colorado is dominated by maga supremacists. looks like tina peters will get protective custody in the state pen, after she fully recovers and is released by the mesa county jail ...
Promises to be interesting if they do catch this person. Odds are it will be another registered republican however.
That's usually the case.
I wonder if it was a republican or a Democrat.
maga
Virtually all voter fraud is traced back to republicans. Liberals just don't tend to roll that way. The party of law-and-order is anything but.
you're preaching to the choir, brother ...
in the last election +95% of voter fraud was committed by republicans and they only got probation ...
only maga morons on the western slope would believe they could get around all the security measures in colorado's vote by mail system. hopefully the colorado SoS can tie tina peters and her maga pals into this crime.
Wonder if the perp's excuse will be, "I wanted to prove it could be done."?
but it couldn't/didn't
No, it didn't. Seems like the voters themselves are keeping watch and reporting apparent misdeeds
I bet Dev is right, probably tied to Peters in some way.
Someone in my actual voting place on the same morning we voted started a fuss claiming that he voted for Trump and the voting machine changed the vote. He started swinging his printout around yelling fraud fraud and started taking pictures of the printout.
Since he did not submit his printout, the ballot was not officially submitted and therefore voided and he was allowed to vote again.
The poll workers insisted he made the error and that's why you must always check the printout ( if that's the style machine they use )
Yesterday it happened again in SC, same issue, same result = voter error. That person was allowed to vote on a provisional ballot.
I voted yesterday and I was sure to check my ballot on the screen and on the card. I've been known to hit wrong buttons.
My machine had an issue with the next button, I probably pushed that sucker 5 or 6 times before it would advance to the next page.
That's a lady's prerogative.
that gave me a giggle
no comment ...
lol - me too
he was electioneering at a polling place and the authorities should have been called ...
Sounds like they have planted a lot of maga morons in certain polling places to do such things
“…like they have planted a lot of maga…”
Living here, no need for planting as they seem to be a native species.
I live on a dead end county road with thirty or so homes with small acreage lining the street…and at least half of them proudly flying the requisite flags, including a few ‘stars and bars’.
A lovely neighbor across the way has her property up for sale but has had very little interest. Her realtor actually said maybe after the election things may change, as potential buyers are wary of seeing such displays. Of course they have every right to do so, but fascinating the unseen ramifications,
Funny. I was driving the other day and doing some errands, I don't get out a lot now that I'm not working, and I saw a few signs just in one area - all for Kamala/Walz - one was even a Childless Cat Lady for Kamala. Made me smile. I didn't see any trump signs.
We obviously live in different worlds!
But we still live in the same country and while each area in certainly different, we are most certainly united in our hopes for our family, our community, our state, our country, and our future. Or at least we should be.
Thank you for voting and wishing the best for you and yours. Peace!
There’s a property up the road from me that went up for sale a couple months ago. A week later the neighbor put out a Trump flag at the road. The property is still for sale. I had expected it to sell before now, but who would want that as a neighbor?
I've seen a lot of maga shrines in texas. what a waste of money and time. I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing when one of my clients got his tea party shrine torched southeast of denver a decade or so ago. probably not the best idea to put a bunch of racist banners on a huge pile of old hay bales that close to the highway. oh well, live and learn ...
lol - typical maga moron
I can't believe I saw a Harris/Waltz sign outside of town on Hwy 5 heading North to maga country. Last week when we went fishing there were a few trmp signs but not as many as in 2020
The neighbors have evolved from Trump Train Flags, banners signs over the years to an 8 x 12 inch sign in the tree ring half buried in shrubbery that says 'Vote Republican'.
The enthusiasm in TX is next to nothing compared to 8 years ago but people are staunchly loyal to the party if not the candidate.
He is likely to prevail in TX.
We shall see.
I've noticed that and commented on it before based upon my observations in south texas. the one encouraging thing that I did notice this year is the significant lack of latino trump supporters down there compared to prior years.
Stopped putting bumper stickers on my vehicles or signs in my yard decades ago. Why invite trouble? Besides, like Taj said, "ain't nobody's business but my own."
I won't put bumper stickers on my car. I had an Obama magnet on my car back in the day but that disappeared - no biggie.
labeling your vehicle is asking for trouble these days ...
Back when I was with NASA had a "space shuttle team member" license plate frame that was broken to flinders when somebody tried to rip it off. It doesn't pay to advertise ANYTHING on your personal property.
“…labeling your vehicle is asking for trouble these days ...”
Indeed. Rather than display one of my own, I leave a short note on those that do and think along the same lines. It always ends with:“Thanks…you are not alone!”
I gave my best friends (cat lovers) car magnets one Christmas that said 'purr more - hiss less' - that's more my speed anymore
“…banners on a huge pile of old hay bales…”
Oh my, plenty of those displays hereabouts as they ‘bale out’.
Upstate NY is MAGA country, held onto be Elise "how many lies can I tell today" Demonic.. errr Stephanik...
But just a mile from my house I see a yard that is just covered in "Vote Blue", all the local and national D candidates, all the signs are hand painted.
I've put bumper stickers on other people's cars before. like my uncle's jeep back bumper when he was a bigshot with the texas GOP. for some reason he didn't see the humor in an "I miss bill" bumper sticker during the bush jr term. apparently it took a few months before somebody pointed it out to him. he's too old for me to harass now.
Back in the days of NV and Obama re-election my entire sales staff was at work on election day and I thought
I generously asked them if they had voted and told them they could leave early, come in late whatever with pay, no proof that they voted was need but I encouraged everyone in sales accounting and the warehouse to vote. I didn't care who they voted for but they should vote.
A day later someone parked in my spot so I ended up parking on the street, a leased black Impala which someone wrote "ni**er lover, fuch Obama" on the dirty salty decklid.
When I turned the car in at the end of the lease the end of lease GM inspector was looking at the deck lid at an angle and said "does that say what I think it says"? I replied, 'Don't worry it will buff out'. ( I hope ).
I got 86'd off an indoor pistol range back in obama's 1st term. some a-holes thought it would be funny to use the obama as a witch doctor heads for targets. on my next outing there I printed off pictures of the south park cartoon's tea party moron to use as targets. apparently that was considered offensive, even with the obama pictures a few lanes over. I pointed out the hypocrisy to them, but they were unmoved and strongly suggested it might be best if those targets weren't used. my third trip there I just used regular 8x10 sheets of white copy paper for targets. dog-earring all 4 corners in the shape of a head. on my way out it was recommended to me that it might be best for everyone if I didn't return. I found out later that the range owner was irreversibly liptonized after an incident with an unlicensed machine gun and ATF involvement eventually closed the place.
That's sweet!
it's amazing how civil people can be when everybody is holding a pistol ...
I especially enjoyed your white paper target. Bad boy bad boy - what ya gonna do. lolol
I think I conveyed a specific message to any interested observers effectively. they were very polite.
I fired 2 goober installers in front of the entire shop when they told me that they didn't celebrate ni@@er holidays and were complaining about no work on MLK day after I announced the system had declared it a holiday.
Most of our local towns have a "What's Happening" page on Facebook for posting news, events, etc. A few weeks ago, some guy posted something about "trash being out" in one town, referring to Harris signs. They knew damn well that could lead to harassment, so I'm pretty sure that's what he intended. The page administrators deleted it pretty quickly, but there was plenty of time for the message to get out. Fortunately, there were quite a few people calling him out for being a dick, too.
I'm lucky that my 3 kids have adopted basically the same attitude towards FB as mine. happy birthday, merry xmas, congrats, condolences, etc. however I have watched my idiot little sister repeatedly shoot herself in the feet and last june I finally stopped jumping her shit for it. my only FB amusement now is watching the remaining elders of the family acquire yet another FB account and email address because of their continued online stupidity.
Ugh. This. Constant cloning of Facebook accounts. One aunt in particular always had "friends" who tried to scam me via Messenger. Over and over with that shit.
even my relatives are not immune to my mockery of their stupidity. I removed my mom's banking info off her laptop years ago and blocked every malicious site I could find, but despite my repeated FB warnings, she still manages to get herself into trouble on a monthly basis. I'll admit it pleases me when old maga morons step into FB tiger traps.
Exactly, who doesn't find pleasure at the misfortune of others that aren't network savvy.
if they've been repeatedly warned, but persist in exposing themselves, they deserve what happens to them ...
I think it's hilarious that a specific demographic of gullible people is more susceptible than any other ...
You would get a real hoot out of the natives of the Kalahari.
When I was in SC for 5 years it was a constant issue, they insisted on working on Memorial Day which they called the N-word Freedumb Day. Businesses which were closed were often vandalized. Ours was threatened with arson. One year they broke a solid 10 x 60 window in the office and stole a dozen used cars after they found the keys. Hatred dies hard. Here we were 130 years after the fact, most of the original inhabitants long gone to Oklahoma or Texas but the white decedents of the carpet baggers still owned losing the "The lost cause". On Confederate Veterans' Day, a state holiday, they don't show up for work but can usually be found in the closest CSA or US military cemetery partying.
Eventually some of them started calling it the first day of some imaginary hunting season to get the time off with pay.
I had to patch a few bullet holes on the front of our house when we sold it, the ex flipped out. I should've kept quiet.
I send all of their accounts birthday and xmas greetings now ...
Ha, the much maligned ‘’vote by mail” systems catch’s the bad guys again, Mail in voting isn’t safe. //s
I voted by mail at the beginning of the week. VA also uses a Ballot Tracking system, it texts me at every step of the process.