A former postal worker from Mesa County was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday for her role in stealing and submitting ballots with fraudulent signatures during the 2024 General Election, authorities said. 

Vicki Stuart, 64, previously pleaded guilty to one count each of felony identity theft and forgery. The sentences are five years for the identity theft charge and two years for the forgery charge, to be served concurrently, followed by three years of parole.

In a statement Wednesday to KREX, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Bobbie Gross said called Stuart’s actions a “direct attack on the fundamental right to vote.”

“Actions like this erode public trust in our elections and discourage civic participation. Taking ballots to fraudulently vote with them is a serious offense. It could have disenfranchised voters, threatened their fundamental right to vote. It undermines the work of election officials and threatens the entirety of our entire election process,” Gross  said. “Upholding the law is that we protect every single eligible voter’s voice and defend the legitimacy of our elections.”

The October 2024 incident involved Stuart and Sally Jane Smith, also known as Sally Maxedon, 59.

Smith allegedly filled out the ballots and mailed them to the Mesa County elections office. She was charged with six counts of felony identity theft, two counts of attempting to influence a public servant, also a felony, and six counts of forgery. Smith is scheduled to appear in court on July 15 for a plea hearing and possible sentencing.

Stuart was originally charged with 16 counts of felony identity theft, two counts of attempting to influence a public servant, and 16 counts of felony forgery. 

Twelve of the 16 ballots were caught in the signature verification process. Three were counted and could not be reversed, although the voters would have been given another ballot.

Mesa County began mailing out ballots for the 2024 general election on Oct. 11, according to affidavits in the Stuart and Smith cases.

Ten days later, Mesa County elections staff notified the 21st District Judicial Office that two voters had received notification that their ballots had been rejected due to discrepancies in signatures. But the voters said they never got the ballots. Both ballots went to the same subdivision.

Other ballots, also flagged for signature discrepancies, were found in the same subdivision but in a different “cluster,” a type of mailbox that serves multiple households.

The following day, another voter complained that his ballot had been stolen but that he’d gotten a notification that it had been turned in. He lives about a half mile from the other four voters who complained their ballots had been stolen.

That’s when investigators began looking at USPS employees since all three ballot mailing locations for the forged ballots were on the same mail delivery route, one handled by Stuart, who had substituted for the standard carrier on Oct. 12.

At the time, Stuart denied stealing or giving the ballots to anyone who would have completed them.

She later claimed she and Smith were “testing” the accuracy of the election system, a claim rejected by a Mesa County judge Wednesday. 

In a statement Thursday, Secretary of State Jena Griswold said the 16 ballots were fraudulently cast and then returned to the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s office via USPS.

“Colorado’s many layers of security helped catch this scheme and prevent these bad actors from disenfranchising additional Colorado voters,” Griswold said.