A former Colorado postal employee admitted to forgery and identity theft in an attempt to steal ballots and cast votes in the 2024 election.
Vicki Stuart pleaded guilty to trying to ‘rig the 2024 election’ according to prosecutors
The 64-year-old was charged with 34 counts in the scheme, including identity theft, forgery and attempt to influence a public servant. Thirty-two of those counts will be dropped as part of the plea agreement.
Both charges Stuart pleaded guilty to are felonies.
Stuart told Judge Brian Flynn. “I feel like I am guilty for the part that I played in it,”
Stuart was charged in November after being accused of stealing at least 16 ballots and delivering them to Sally Jane Maxedon (a.k.a. Smith), who is also charged in the case.
According to the arrest affidavit, “Sally explained that she and Stuart began conversations in October 2024 where they conspired a plan to ‘test’ the voting signature system for ballots utilized at Elections,”
“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.”
According to the arrest affidavit, the ballots were stolen from Mesa County residents before they could be delivered.
The scheme was uncovered when some voters alerted authorities after they were told their ballots were being processed, even though they hadn’t received their ballots yet.
At the time of the theft, Stuart was working as a U.S. Postal Service employee in Grand Junction with direct access to ballots that had been sent in the mail in October of 2024.
Stuart will sentenced June 25th.
