GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – Two women arrested Wednesday for attempting to cast over a dozen fraudulent ballots in Mesa County for the Nov. 5 election were trying to “test” the county’s voting signature verification process to see whether it would catch forged signatures, according to an arrest affidavit in the case.
Vicki Lyn Stuart, 64, and Salley Jane Maxedon (a.k.a. Smith), 60, face identity theft, attempt to influence a public servant and forgery charges in connection with the attempted voter fraud investigation in the county announced by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold late last month.
The investigation began after Mesa County Elections Department staff notified the 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office that at least four alarmed voters had reached out after being notified their 2024 General Election mail-in ballots had been rejected by the county elections division due to signature discrepancies.
Politics
Mesa County thwarts voter fraud effort after 12 stolen ballots were cast
Prosecutors said that between Oct. 11 and Oct. 24, Stuart and Maxedon “conspired a plan to ‘test’ the voting signature system” to determine whether the county’s signature verification process would detect fraudulent ballots.
The plan included obtaining ballots, forging voter signatures, and then submitting those fraudulent ballots to the Mesa County Elections Department.
Stuart, a USPS mail carrier, was identified as a potential suspect after investigators from the DA’s office determined the ballots came from two different USPS mailbox “clusters” that can only be accessed by mail carriers, and that all mailing locations that returned fraudulent ballots “were on the same mail delivery route as the USPS Mail Carrier route for that area/subdivisions,” according to the affidavit.
When interviewed by DA investigators, Stuart initially denied stealing ballots and giving them to someone else who may have fraudulently submitted them, but fingerprint evidence connected at least one of the stolen ballots to Maxedon, who was contacted by investigators on Election Day, arresting documents show.
Maxedon admitted to investigators that she “falsely completed voting ballots which did not belong to her,” saying the ballots were provided by Stuart, a friend from the post office who she has known for about three years, and who she last spoke with on Nov. 3.
During the interview, Maxedon told DA investigators she obtained the stolen ballots from Stuart around the week of Oct. 11, when Mesa County mail-in ballots started arriving to people’s homes, the affidavit states.
Arresting documents show Maxedon told investigators Stuart gave her about six or seven stolen ballots shortly after, and that Stuart told her to fill them out so they could “test” the county’s voting signature verification process.
Days after giving her friend the fraudulent ballots, Maxedon told investigators Stuart contacted her after learning a criminal investigation was underway to find out who attempted to return fraudulent ballots in Mesa County, and that “both were concerned about being caught for their actions,” according to the affidavit.
On Nov. 6, investigators contacted Stuart during a traffic stop. During that encounter, investigators found she was in possession of postal stamps “of the same flag type which appeared on the stolen ballot envelopes,” arresting documents show.
Both were subsequently arrested.
In a statement Wednesday, Mesa County Clerk Bobbie Gross said she was deeply grateful for the "diligence and thorough efforts of the District Attorney's Office in addressing this matter."
"I am proud our security measures are effective, and we will remain vigilant to safeguard the integrity of our elections," Gross said, adding she was "committed to transparency and accountability at every step of the election process so that voters in Mesa County can have confidence that their ballots are secure."
Prosecutors said Wednesday more fraudulent ballots are still being found and “there is indication there may be 20+ victims."
As of Election Day, 16 people out of the 114,773 active voters in Mesa County had reported being victims of voter fraud.
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