At least 12 mailed ballots were unlawfully obtained in a rural county in Colorado and subsequently submitted with deceptive votes. Out of these, three fraudulent votes went undetected by county election officials and were included in the upcoming general election’s count, as announced by state officials on Thursday.

Another ballot came close to being counted, but the intended voter—who had not received their ballot—was alerted via electronic notification that their ballot had been validated by the elections office. This prompted the individual to reach out to the clerk, according to Secretary of State Jena Griswold during a press briefing held in Denver.

The discovery of the fraudulent ballots occurred during the signature verification phase of the voting process, which allowed officials in Mesa County to intercept eight ballots before they were counted, as stated by Griswold. By Wednesday, the county had already processed over 27,000 ballots.

Unfortunately, the three votes that were counted cannot be removed from the overall tally. Since the ballots themselves do not have any signatures, once they have been taken out of their signature envelopes, there is no way to trace them back to the original voters.

Reports indicate that several of the fraudulent ballots may have been signed by the same individual. However, Griswold refrained from discussing potential motives or the ongoing investigation led by both Mesa County and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The district attorney’s office has not yet responded to inquiries for comments.

This incident of fraudulent voting took place in the same county where former election clerk Tina Peters was recently sentenced to prison due to a data breach related to unfounded allegations of voting machine fraud during the 2020 presidential election.

Griswold, a member of the Democratic Party, expressed her regret over this situation but reassured the public about the safety and security of Colorado’s elections. She remarked, “This attempt at fraud was discovered and addressed swiftly due to the innovative processes and technologies we employ in Colorado, such as signature verification, ballot tracking, and the curing process,” referring to a system that notifies voters if the signature on their ballot envelope does not correspond with the signature on record.

For those voters who did not receive their mailed ballots, Griswold announced that new ballots will be issued for them to vote.

Bobbi Gross, the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder who succeeded Peters and is also a Republican, expressed her dissatisfaction regarding Griswold’s decision to hold a press conference. Gross conveyed concerns that “prematurely releasing details could hinder our ability to hold the responsible parties accountable.” She emphasized the importance of transparency and accountability for the residents of Mesa County but insisted that it must be executed in a way that maintains the integrity of the ongoing investigation.