A former United States Postal Service employee pleaded guilty on Monday for her role in a voter fraud scheme that took place before the 2024 elections.
Vicki Stuart was one of two people charged with taking ballots that were in the mail to residents of Mesa County, Colorado, filling them out and then submitting them to the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s Office, according to KREX-TV.
During the plea hearing, 32 counts against Stuart were dropped.
She pleaded guilty to one count of identity theft and one count of forgery.
“I feel guilty for the part I played,” Stuart told Judge Brian Flynn during the hearing, which lasted less than 10 minutes.
The arrest affidavit against Stuart and Sally Maxedon said they sought to “test” the system of verifying signatures on mail-in ballots.
Stuart was accused of taking ballots that Maxedon would then fill out.
Sixteen voters had their ballots taken.
Mesa County elections office staff caught on when voters who had not received ballots were told their ballots had been rejected due to discrepancies with their signatures.
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Stuart, 64, had initially denied her part of the scheme. Maxedon admitted her role.
State officials said three stolen ballots made it through the system and were counted, according to Colorado Public Radio.
Court documents said that voters whose ballots were taken lived in the same housing subdivision, according to the Grand Junction Sentinel.
“Sally explained that she and Stuart began conversations in October 2024, wherein Sally and Stuart conspired a plan to ‘test’ the voting signature system for ballots utilized at Elections,” the arrest affidavit stated.
“This plan included obtaining ballots, forging voter signatures, and then turning the ballots into Mesa County Elections Department.
“The stated desired outcome was for Sally and Stuart to determine if the signature verification process would detect if the forged signatures were not those of the known voter signatures on file with Elections,” the affidavit continued.
Stuart was a USPS mail carrier for the targeted subdivision, according to KDVR.
Maxedon admitted, she “falsely completed voting ballots which did not belong to her,” saying the ballots were provided by Stuart, a friend she had known for about three years.
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