Colorado election officials find at least a dozen fraudulent ballots cast in 2024 early voting

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Thursday announced that at least a dozen mail ballots have been stolen, filled out, and sent in so far in the 2024 general election.

The blue-leaning state has been sending mail-in ballots to every registered voter for years, and has served as an example for other liberal states during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to NBC News. 

Election officials said the errors were caught during the signature verification process, which compares a voter's signature on the ballot with the one the state has in its records. Nearly all of the mistakes were caught, but three slipped through the system and were counted before they could be removed. Those ballots cannot be changed, and will count.

The office did not indicate what political party or candidate the votes were cast for, but the Mesa County District Attorney is investigating the incident. 

“Colorado’s elections are safe and secure,” Griswold wrote in a statement. “This attempt at fraud was found and investigated quickly because of all the trailblazing processes and tools Colorado has in place like signature verification, ballot tracking, and the curing process.”

The ballots were all mailed into the Mesa County election office through the United States Postal Service, according to election officials, and were not left in drop boxes. No suspect has been identified so far.

Voters in Colorado who are concerned about the status of their ballots can track their votes at govotecolorado.gov.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.