A criminal investigation is underway in Colorado after election officials say they foiled an effort to fraudulently cast votes using at least a dozen stolen mail ballots, according to reports.
The scheme, announced by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, was blocked by the state’s voter signature verification process, the Colorado Sun reported Thursday. The process compares each voter's ballot signature with the signatures the state has on file for them.
While almost all of the dozen stolen ballots were stopped before they were counted, three made it through election officials and will be counted in the Nov. 5 election, as the Colorado Sun notes, adding: “those votes cannot be remedied or removed.”
ALSO READ: 'He’s mentally ill:' NY laughs ahead of Trump's Madison Square Garden rallyThe illegal voter scheme was unraveled, according to the publication, “when election officials in Mesa County recently reached out to a group of voters to help them cure the signature problems with their ballots.” That’s when “the voters informed the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder’s Office that they hadn’t voted.”
Griswold said Thursday at a news conference “that the stolen ballots were ‘intercepted’ before they reached the voters who were supposed to receive them. She said all of the ballots were supposed to be received by voters who live in close proximity to each other. Griswold declined to elaborate further citing the probe into the case,” according to the Colorado Sun.
The newspaper added that Griswold cited the ongoing investigation and said she couldn’t comment on whether there are any suspects in the case.