What we know about the voter fraud scheme in Mesa County

Updated Oct. 24, 2024, at 4:43 p.m.

Around a dozen ballots in Mesa County were stolen from registered voters in the mail and submitted fraudulently.

State officials said Thursday they discovered the thefts this week through the signature verification process in Grand Junction, prompting an investigation by state and local officials. 

Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein launched a criminal investigation into the stolen ballots. The news comes almost a month after former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was sentenced to nine years of incarceration for her role in breaching county voting equipment. 

The secretary of state’s office said the ballots were intercepted before being received by the voters they were intended for and then later submitted fraudulently. They were mailed back to the clerk’s office, instead of being put in a drop box, which is under video surveillance. 

Three ballots got through the system and have been counted as legitimate votes, but the others were stopped, according to the secretary of state’s office. The three victims of ballot theft will get another opportunity to cast a vote.

Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the fraud came to light through the state’s signature validation process. People also contacted the clerk’s office to say they’d received alerts that their ballots were being processed, despite never having received them.

“Every voter impacted by the scheme that we are uncovering will have the opportunity to make a voice in the 2024 general election and affected voters will be given a new ballot,” she said. “Voter fraud, voter intimidation and voter harassment are illegal in the state of Colorado.”

Signature verification is a layer in the checks and balances process of mail-in ballots in Colorado. It involves both an automatic review of signatures and the work of human judges to ensure that the signature on each ballot envelope matches the signature on file for that voter.

With the three ballots that were ultimately accepted and counted, the automated signature verification program initially flagged them. However, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, the same election judge reviewed and approved each of them. That person has since been reassigned. 

Mesa County looked at all the other ballots that have been rejected so far in this election because of an inconsistent signature and discovered that it appeared that at least some of them were signed by the same person. 

“The system did work,” Griswold said.  “We don’t know the motive as to the person, but this is incredibly dangerous to the electoral process. It’s unfortunate that three ballots got through but overall this was addressed by the Mesa County clerk and a criminal investigation is underway.”

In a statement, Mesa County Clerk Bobbie Gross said her office was investigating the claim, but suggested that the Secretary of State’s Office may have erred in releasing information. 

“While we understand the Secretary of State’s desire to make public statements, this is our community and our investigation,” Gross said. “It is critical that we follow proper procedures to ensure a thorough and effective investigation without tipping off those involved. The people of Mesa County deserve transparency and accountability, but it must be done in a manner that protects the integrity of the investigation.”

Gross added that more details would be released when it was prudent to do so. 

Matt Crane, the executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said in his more than 20 years of running elections, he’s never seen anything like this happen before.

Griswold said the state was informed of the fraud Tuesday, and that the Mesa County elections office is now giving extra scrutiny of every ballot they receive.  

“The investigation into this situation is ongoing,” Griswold said. “What we also know is that Colorado's elections are safe and secure, and this attempt at fraud was found and investigated quickly because of the groundbreaking tools that we have here.”