An Aug. 3 El Paso County grand jury indictment charging state Sen. Pete Lee with falsifying residency information pertains to votes he cast in El Paso County elections in 2019 and 2020.

The indictment contains two counts: a violation of CRS 1-13-709.5, which says any person who votes by knowingly giving false information regarding the elector’s place of present residence commits a class 5 felony. 

The indictment said Lee — a Colorado Spring Democrat identified by his legal name, Sanford Edmund Lee — voted in the state primary on March 3, 2020, and in the general election on Nov. 5, 2019, using “false information” about where he lives in both cases. 

The grand jury’s indictment is only for the March 2020 voten; they did not return a “true bill” – an indictment, on the Nov. 2019 vote.

A search of El Paso County property records shows Lee owns a home at 1600 West Cheyenne Road, last sold in 1991. He also owns a home at 216 North Sheridan Ave., a much smaller property, that was last sold in 1984. The assessor records lists the West Cheyenne Rd. property as the mailing address for Lee, as the owner of the North Sheridan Ave. home.

Lee also listed the North Sheridan Ave. home as his mailing address for his last run for office, in 2018. The home is in Senate District 11, which he represents. The West Cheyenne Road property is in Senate District 12, which is represented by Republican state Sen. Bob Gardner.

Both properties were in the House district Lee represented.

An audio recording obtained by 9News contains a conversation between Lee and an unidentified woman from June 2020, in which Lee discussed the legal problems he could run into by living at the West Cheyenne property while being registered to vote at the North Sheridan Ave. house. The 9News report said the recording came from a conversation caught on audio recorded in the state Senate after business was concluded but while audio was still being recorded.

In that recording, Lee said “the real threat is that it’s a felony 5 to vote from a district that you don’t live in.”

Lee also said in the recording that Sen. Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat who is currently the Senate president and was at the time the Senate majority leader, advised him to contact Martha Tierney, the attorney for the Colorado Democratic Party. Lee said Tierney referred him to attorney John Buckley of Denver, and that Buckley advised him, “There isn’t enough to really nail me on that.”

Lee’s residency issues were first reported by the Colorado Springs Independent in 2020. Lee in the conversation at the state Capitol was allegedly referring to that article, which was published days earlier.

Lee’s attorney, David Kaplan, said in a statement Tuesday “the Republican El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen charged Senator Pete Lee with what he claims is voting on one occasion, over 2 years ago, in a district where he did not reside. There are no allegations that Senator Lee submitted two ballots in a single election. Senator Lee has an impeccable record as a state legislator representing the citizens of District 11 and is proud to have voted on ballots appropriately obtained in order to exercise the sacred duty and honor of casting his ballot on issues of importance.”

“Senator Lee places great value in the trust that Colorado voters give to their elected officials,” Kaplan added. “He has worked tirelessly to propose and pass criminal justice policies to benefit the citizens of his district and the State, often despite vocal opposition by those who oppose any reform. At a time when the public expresses concern about an increase in violent crime, along with a drug abuse epidemic, it is disappointing that this District Attorney expends precious resources, deploys investigators, detectives and assigns prosecutors to search for a complaint against Senator Lee.”

“The charge will be vigorously challenged,” Kaplan said.

A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. A class 5 felony carries fines of between $1,000 and $100,000, and/or one to three years in prison, and probation of up to two years.

Lee has been a member of the General Assembly since 2010, when he was first elected to the state House. He was subsequently elected to the state Senate in 2018. He has been the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee since the 2019 session and has been an advocate for criminal justice reform.

Correction: A previous version identified the wrong John Buckley as having advised Sen. Pete Lee. It should have referred to John Buckley, a lawyer from Denver, instead of John Buckley, an attorney from Colorado Springs and former member of the Colorado Independent Legislative Redistricting Commission. This story has since been updated. We apologize to John C. Buckley of Colorado Springs for the error.