Last week, Vicki Lyn Stuart, a former postal worker in Mesa County, Colorado, was sentenced to five years in prison. She pleaded guilty to felony identity theft and forgery after stealing and submitting mail-in ballots with forged signatures during the 2024 General Election. Her justification to the court was that she was “testing Colorado’s election security safeguards.”
According to court documents, Stuart intercepted at least twenty mail-in ballots along her USPS route. She and her accomplice, Sally Jane Maxedon, forged voters’ signatures and submitted the ballots to election offices. Colorado’s signature verification system flagged irregularities, and while some forged ballots were initially counted, they were later invalidated when discrepancies surfaced (CPR News).
Both women are registered Republicans. Maxedon is scheduled to appear for her plea and sentencing hearing on July 15, 2025 (Westword).
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold stated:
“Colorado elections are safe and secure, and our election laws will be enforced.”
This case is not isolated. Many of the prosecuted voter fraud cases in recent years have involved Republican voters or operatives, despite persistent Republican and MAGA narratives that it is Democrats who engage in systematic election fraud.
The Pattern of Projection
Donald Trump, MAGA influencers, and Republican leaders repeatedly claim that Democrats steal elections through fraud. Yet a consistent pattern of projection emerges. Here are five prominent examples:
1. North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District Scandal (2018)
Leslie McCrae Dowless, a Republican operative, was indicted for running an absentee ballot fraud scheme to benefit Republican candidate Mark Harris. Dowless and his team illegally collected, altered, and discarded mail-in ballots to manipulate the outcome. The fraud was so extensive that the state ordered an entirely new election (NPR).
2. Nevada Republican Voting Twice (2020)
Donald Kirk Hartle, a Republican executive, was convicted for voting twice by using his deceased wife’s ballot. Initially, Hartle claimed that her ballot being counted was evidence of voter fraud by Democrats. Investigators later found he was the one who cast the fraudulent ballot (AP News).
3. Pennsylvania Republican Voting for Dead Mother (2020)
Bruce Bartman, a Republican voter in Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to casting an absentee ballot in the name of his deceased mother for Donald Trump. He admitted he was motivated by partisan beliefs and false claims of widespread fraud (Philadelphia Inquirer).
4. The Villages, Florida Voter Fraud (2020-2021)
Four residents of The Villages retirement community, all registered Republicans, were arrested and charged for voting multiple times in the 2020 election (Orlando Sentinel).
5. Trump’s Voter Fraud Commission and Kobach Contempt (2018)
Kris Kobach, who led Trump’s voter fraud commission, was held in contempt of court for repeatedly making false claims about voter fraud rates while enforcing restrictive voting laws as Kansas Secretary of State (The Guardian).
The Strategy
This pattern reveals a clear strategy. First, commit the crime. Second, blame your opponents for the crime. Third, use the manufactured crisis to push laws that suppress voting, particularly among urban, young, and minority voters. Republicans and MAGA figures continue to claim Democrats are stealing elections. Yet the factual record shows that many prosecuted cases involve Republicans themselves.
The Colorado Takeaway
In the end, Vicki Stuart’s defense that she was “testing” election security by forging ballots failed in court. Her accomplice, Sally Maxedon, will be sentenced on July 15. Colorado’s multi-layered ballot verification system detected and corrected their fraud before it could impact results. This is the irony of their scheme. They attempted to undermine democracy to prove it was undermined. They proved only that election security works and that fraudulent actors will be prosecuted.
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