MESA COUNTY, Colo — A postal worker and her friend have been arrested in connection with the theft of mail ballots intercepted and cast without the voters' knowledge in Mesa County last month, investigators with the 21st Judicial District Attorney's Office said Wednesday.
Investigators said postal worker Vicki Stuart, 64, and Sally Maxedon, also known as Sally Smith, 59, were arrested in connection with the thefts.
Both suspects were arrested on charges of identity theft, attempt to influence a public servant, and forgery, investigators said.
The U.S. Postal Service told 9NEWS Wednesday that Stuart "has been placed in an emergency non duty status."
In late October, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said a criminal investigation was underway after the ballots of about a dozen voters in Mesa County were intercepted and cast without the voters’ knowledge. Griswold said the issue was discovered during the signature verification process, when the clerk’s office found the signatures did not match the voter signatures on record and stopped the counting process for those ballots.
The ballots, which never made it to the voters’ homes, were filled out, sealed in the ballot envelopes, signed, and returned through a postal box.
Griswold said three of the ballots made it all the way through the counting process. The votes made on those ballots could not be reversed, Griswold said.
One of the ballots made it through the signature verification process but was caught before it was counted.
According to arrest warrants written by district attorney's office investigators, Maxedon at first told investigators that she had gotten the ballots from a Colorado Bureau of Investigation employee she randomly met in a parking lot and who asked her to help test the voting system, the affidavits say.
Maxedon eventually admitted she wasn't being fully honest and told investigators that she and Stuart had conspired a plan to “test” the signature verification system for ballots. This plan included obtaining ballots, forging voter signatures, and then turning the ballots into Mesa County Elections Department, Maxedon told investigators.
Maxedon told investigators that Stuart gave her six or seven stolen ballots and directed her to fill them out, the affidavits say. Maxedon told investigators she filled out the ballots, put them in the ballot envelopes, sealed the envelopes, and then forged the voter signatures on the envelopes. She then gave the stolen ballots back to Stuart, the affidavits say.
The affidavits say there may have been more than 20 victims. At the time the affidavits were written, 16 people had reported that someone else had used their ballots, the affidavits say. All of those people live along the same mail route.
Investigators said Stuart substituted for the normal mail carrier for a route delivery on Oct. 12, when ballots were being delivered.