Craig Hall and Brandon Leuallen, The Business Times

Even with several tiers of signature auditing in place, the volume of mail in votes leaves Colorado’s system open to fraud and mistakes while putting the onus on individuals.

According to Mesa County Clerk Bobbie Gross, the 12 fraudulent ballots under current investigation were all set aside for the envelope signatures not matching by the automated equipment used by the county. “And while that’s all part of the process, the fact is our equipment sets aside about 50% of early ballot envelopes due to signatures not matching. Unless it’s an exact, or almost exact, match, the equipment kicks the envelope out,” said Gross, “And not all counties in Colorado even have the automated equipment needed for the first step in the authorization process.” 

The Business Times estimates as many as 35,000 ballots have been progressed to individual, tier one judges as of this report.

According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s website, these are the steps which follow the machine-based rejections.

The first step for an envelope set aside by the equipment is its going before a single election judge for the judge to determine if the signature match passes to move the envelope to be opened and saved and the ballot into the queue to be counted. 

Gross indicated she doesn’t like this particular tier in the process. Ballots cannot be retrieved once separated from the voter’s signature envelope.

If the signature cannot be verified by the single judge, the envelope then goes to a bi-partisan set of two judges to determine if the signature passes or if they agree it does not pass, the ballot does not progress to be counted and the system begins the next step of writing a letter to the voter for in-person curing.

Unlike the initial judge, the bi-partisan judges have access to more signatures than ones from just the previous election. It should be noted at this point, both judges do not have to agree on the signature passing in order for the envelope to be progressed, separated and counted. 

“They don’t have to agree, if one says yes, it passes,” said Gross, “Although I have never seen the judges not agree. If one is uncomfortable with the signature they have always just rejected it because the voter will still have the opportunity to cure. That is how we train the judges.”

Gross also noted a tier one judge cannot be part of the tier two process on a ballot they progressed.

“Both tiers are audited periodically during the voting process by the county,” added Gross in saying audits are required by state law.

Even with these tier levels in place, 3 envelopes/ballots were progressed through the system where the ballots are set to be counted. 

The Business Times cannot confirm if any of those ballots were ones from the citizens who went to the county in person with concerns.

“The Secretary of State did have a few things incorrect concerning the three ballots that were accepted. Our equipment did kick them out for signature verification and unfortunately one election judge accepted the three when they shouldn’t have,” said Gross.

The judge who approved those ballots has been reassigned.

“I respect our judges and the difficult work they do,” said Gross, “Unfortunately, in these cases they made a mistake while doing their best. And with all that said, Colorado law prohibits us from overturning a judge’s decision. If our audit sees something which shouldn’t have been accepted or rejected, the only thing we can do is go over the training again and have a conversation. If the judge continues to accept or reject when they shouldn’t have, we can take them off that process and reassign them or let them go if needed.”

Gross also noted the county is going through all of the ballots it has received thus far and have found no
additional fraudulent envelopes/ballots. “So far, We’ve gone through about 60% of the 30,000 ballots we’ve received.”