Former Mesa County mailwoman pleads guilty to two charges in alleged ballot theft scheme

MESA COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - A former Colorado mail carrier has pleaded guilty to identity theft and forgery after being accused of stealing ballots, according to court records. This represents only two charges out of the 34 she was originally charged with.

According to arrest records, an investigation began last November when some residents had reached out to the Elections Department, saying they had gotten an alert that their mail-in ballots were rejected due to signature discrepancies. One problem: the residents said they never received their mail-in ballot.

The chief investigator on the case noted that Mesa County receives about one mailbox-related voter crime a year. Not only are they reported rarely, but investigators say that they are usually inter-family, like a family member unlawfully casting another family member's ballot without permission.

But this case was unusual. According to the arrest affidavit, which was authored in November, investigators believed there could be at least 20 connected victims, though only 16 were named.

After analyzing the mail carrier route of the area, investigators were led to mail carrier Vicki Stuart. When interviewed, Stuart told investigators that when she was delivering ballots, she would check to make sure the name on the envelope matched the name taped to the inside of the individual's community mailbox door. (A USPS manager told investigators that mail carriers should not be doing this, because they can't be sure the names taped to the inside of the mailboxes were correct). Stuart said if the names didn't match, she wouldn't deliver the ballot and instead place them in a return-to-sender ballot box at the main office.

Stuart denied involvement in the alleged ballot thefts and denied giving them to anyone else, according to arrest records.

Investigators sent some of the ballots to the CBI for fingerprint analysis. The fingerprints came up with a match to another woman, Sally Jane Maxedon, according to arrest records.

Investigators interviewed Maxedon. Records say she first claimed she "was provided the ballots by a male who worked at CBI, who she randomly met in a parking lot." Ultimately, court records say Smith told investigators that she and Vicki Stuart conspired together to "test" the voting system; they hoped to see if the signature verification process would detect forged signatures. Maxedon reportedly told investigators that Stuart did take ballots at work, which she later handed off to her.

Maxedon's next hearing is Thursday, May 8, 2025.