Postal worker and her friend forged stolen ballots to test voting security, officials say

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKKCO/Gray News) – Two women now jailed in Colorado are accused of stealing ballots, altering them and then fraudulently submitting them for counting.

59-year-old Sally Jane Smith and 64-year-old postal worker, Vicki Lyn Stuart, are both charged with identity theft, attempting to influence an official and forgery for their involvement in an alleged scheme to “destroy the ballot signature system that used in elections,” the arrest affidavit said.

According to the affidavit, their goal was to see if the forged signatures would be detected by the verification process.

Documents show voters are still being traced and confirmed, but there could be 20 or more victims of the alleged scheme.

The two suspects were tracked down because some of the ballots allegedly forged had fallen along the same mail delivery route; it was a route confirmed to have been temporarily assigned to Stuart, the postman.

Documents also stated that Stuart was interviewed by District Attorney Rob Heil. He said Stuart was the person who would have delivered the ballots along that route.

Investigators also discovered that Stuart’s GPS location showed her at the homes of the known victims on October 12, the day the affected ballots were scheduled to be delivered.

Smith’s fingerprints were also allegedly found on a Colorado Bureau of Investigation ballot; it was a ballot she would not normally have access to, as investigators discovered she was never an employee of the United States Postal Service or the Mesa County Elections Department.

Arrest documents show that police eventually contacted Smith at her home.

During an interview with investigators, Smith allegedly admitted to filling out ballots that were not hers. She initially claimed the ballots were provided to her by a man working at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation whom she “randomly met in a parking lot,” according to the affidavit. She also claimed that the man asked her to help test the voting system, to which Smith responded by filling out the ballots in her truck and returning them to the man.

“(Smith) even hand-drew a map of where she met the CBI man at Mesa Mall and (she) indicated where (she) parked,” the affidavit said.

However, Smith eventually admitted to officials that she knew Stuart and that she was not completely honest with the investigator; documents stated she was trying to protect Stuart.

The affidavit states that Smith then admitted to the investigator that she had received the ballots from Stuart around the time the ballots began arriving in Grand Junction mailboxes.

Stuart was contacted by law enforcement around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday and reportedly said something similar to, “Are you going to put me in jail just because I mishandled a post?”

Bobbie Gross, clerk and recorder for Mesa County, released a statement regarding the research. It read in part:

“Mesa County election officials recently identified and successfully prevented fraudulent voting attempts through our signature verification process. We immediately reported this to the 21st Judicial District Office, which led to two arrests today.

“I am very grateful for the dedication and thorough efforts of the Attorney General’s Office in addressing this case. I am proud that our security measures are effective, and we will remain vigilant to ensure the integrity of our elections.”

Stuart and Smith were booked into the Mesa County Detention Facility.

Bond has not yet been set for either woman.

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