Elections

Fraudulent Mail Ballots Found in Colorado, Some Already Counted as Criminal Investigation Launched

Published

2 months ago

October 25, 2024

The Colorado Secretary of State’s office revealed that at least a dozen fraudulent mail ballots were submitted and identified in Mesa County. However, three of these ballots were counted and could not be removed from the final tally, according to a report by CBS News.

Just The News reports that during a news conference on Thursday, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold explained that the ballots were intercepted and fraudulently filled out before the intended voters received them. “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,” Griswold said. The fraud was detected during the signature verification process.

The secretary of state’s office said it learned about the fraudulent ballots earlier in the week. Although most of the ballots were flagged before being counted, four initially passed signature verification. In two cases, voters were asked to cure their ballots, which led one voter to inform Mesa County officials that they had not actually received or submitted their ballot.

“The voter reached out to Mesa County to tell them they did not vote their ballot and or receive it,” Griswold noted. Additionally, another affected voter received a message via the BallotTrax system indicating their ballot had been received by the county clerk, despite not having voted.

A subsequent investigation by the Mesa County clerk revealed that the fraudulent ballots originated from areas in close proximity to each other and that some were signed by the same individual. The investigation has been handed over to the district attorney, who is conducting a criminal investigation into the matter.

“Colorado’s elections are safe and secure,” Griswold reassured voters in a statement. She emphasized that the state’s robust election security measures, including signature verification, ballot tracking, and the curing process, enabled officials to quickly identify the attempted fraud. “Every eligible Colorado voter will be able to make their voice heard this election,” she added.

The criminal investigation into the fraudulent ballots is ongoing, and further details are expected as it progresses.

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Elections

Canada Beefs up Border Security After Trump Threatened Sweeping Tariffs

Published

6 days ago

December 3, 2024

Sara Carter Staff

In November, president-elect Donald Trump announced on social media that he would impose a 25% tariff on all products from Canada and Mexico if they do not take an active role in containing illegal immigration as well as the level of illicit drugs entering into the United States.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago, after which the Canadian government vowed to secure the border. “We got, I think, a mutual understanding of what they’re concerned about in terms of border security,” Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc, who accompanied Trudeau at Mar-a-Largo, said of the meeting in an interview with Canadian media. “All of their concerns are shared by Canadians and by the government of Canada.”

“We talked about the security posture currently at the border that we believe to be effective, and we also discussed additional measures and visible measures that we’re going to put in place over the coming weeks,” LeBlanc continued. “And we also established, Rosemary, a personal series of rapport that I think will continue to allow us to make that case.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation reports the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is preparing to beef up its immigration enforcement capabilities by hiring more staff, adding more vehicles and creating more processing facilities, in the chance that there is an immigration surge sparked by Trump’s presidential election victory. The moves are a change in direction from Trudeau’s public declaration in January 2017 that Canada was a “welcoming” country and that “diversity is our strength” just days after Trump was sworn into office the first time.

The Daily Caller notes the differences in response from the Canadian government verses Mexico’s:

Trudeau’s recent overtures largely differ from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has indicated she is not willing to bend the knee to Trump’s tariff threats. The Mexican leader in November said “there will be a response in kind” to any tariff levied on Mexican goods going into the U.S., and she appeared to deny the president-elect’s claims that she agreed to do more to beef up border security in a recent phone call.