At least a dozen fraudulent ballots identified in Colorado, some counted

The Colorado secretary of state's office announced that at least a dozen fraudulent mail ballots were sent in and identified in Mesa County, but that three of them were counted and unable to be removed.

"The ballots were filled out, the return envelopes were signed, they were then returned to a USPS blue box, so that's a postal box, not a ballot drop box," Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold (D) said during a news conference on Thursday, CBS News reported. "The issue was discovered during the signature verification process."

The secretary of state's office said the Department of State learned earlier in the week about the dozen or more ballots that were stolen before the intended voters received them.

All but three ballots were identified before being counted, according to CBS News. Four of the ballots passed the initial round in the signature verification process. Mesa County asked two of the voters to cure their ballots, which led to one of them alerting the county that they had not sent it in.

"The voter reached out to Mesa County to tell them they did not vote their ballot and or receive it," Griswold said. "At least one other affected voter received a message through the BallotTrax system... that their ballot was received by their county clerk. Again, the voter did not receive their ballot and had not voted their ballot."

She added that the Mesa County clerk had begun an investigation that discovered the ballots had been sent from areas near each other. The investigation also found that some of the ballots were signed by the same individual. The Mesa County clerk turned over the investigation to the district attorney, who started a criminal investigation.

“Colorado’s elections are safe and secure,” Griswold said in a statement Thursday. “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. Every eligible Colorado voter will be able to make their voice heard this election.”