Only one case of voter fraud was recorded and prosecuted in Colorado after the 2016 election, and the perpetrator, former Colorado Republican Party Chairman Steve Curtis, was just sentenced to four years of probation and 300 hours of community service. Curtis said at his hearing on Friday that "it was a normal and customary thing in my house" for him to fill out the ballots of his two ex-wives. "I didn't know that was illegal," he added. "But at no time did I plan this, and I still don't remember doing it." He said he had filled in the mail-in ballot of his estranged wife at the time, Kelly Curtis, and forged her signature during a diabetic blackout.
District Judge Julie Hoskins said she "didn't believe for a second" that he filled out the ballot, signed it with the correct ink and his wife's signature, and mailed it in during a blackout, and she almost upped his sentence to jail time, as prosecutors had requested, when he interrupted her, The Greeley Tribune reports. Curtis was caught when Kelly Curtis called the Weld County Clerk to obtain her mail-in ballot, only to be told she had already voted; DNA evidence and handwriting analysis led the district attorney's office to Steve Curtis. A jury convicted him of voter fraud and forgery, a felony and a misdimeanor, in December. Curtis, 57, was chairman of the state GOP from 1997 to 1999 and worked as a talk show host at KLZ-AM in Denver until as recently as last August.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Trump hawks Teslas, slashes more federal jobsSpeed Read The Education Department cut its workforce in half ahead of an expected Trump order to shutter the agency
-
Ukraine agrees to ceasefire, ending US aid freezeSpeed Read Kyiv made peace with the Trump administration by agreeing to an immediate ceasefire in its war against Russian invaders
-
ICE arrests Palestinian advocate with green cardSpeed Read Recent Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil has had his visa revoked, despite his status as a permanent resident
-
Trump doesn't rule out recession as tariffs biteSpeed Read In an interview for Fox News, Trump acknowledges the economic turbulence caused by his tariffs but claims his policies will be worth it in the long run
-
Mark Carney selected next Canadian prime ministerSpeed Read The political novice will succeed outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
-
Trump eases Mexico, Canada tariffs again as markets slidespeed read The president suspended some of the 25% tariffs he imposed on Mexican and Canadian imports
-
Trump tells Cabinet they are in charge of layoffs, not MuskSpeed Read The White House has faced mounting complaints about DOGE's sweeping cuts
-
Rep. Sylvester Turner dies, weeks after joining HouseSpeed Read The former Houston mayor and longtime state legislator left behind a final message for Trump: 'Don't mess with Medicaid'
