Sally Maxedon will serve 100 hours of community service for her role in a scheme to steal mail-in ballots in Mesa County ahead of last November’s election.
Maxedon, 60, conspired with former postal worker Vicki Stuart to steal more than a dozen ballots from would-be voters before they could be delivered. Stuart was sentenced to 5 years in prison for her role in the case.
Twenty-first Judicial District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said the discrepancies in the two plea agreements had to do with the difference in the role that each woman played, noting that the prosecution of Stuart was due in large part to cooperation from Maxedon.
“Ms. Stuart was capable and, in fact, did follow through on doing all of this all alone and enlisted Ms. Maxedon’s help in doing part of it. But Ms. Maxedon could never have done any of this without Ms. Stuart,” Rubinstein said. “It was Ms. Stuart, as the mail carrier, who had access to the ballots, who specifically selected the names of the people, and that she seemed to be targeting people that she thought might be illegal or might possibly vote differently than she wanted the votes.”
The pair attempted to cast some of those stolen ballots in an effort to test Colorado’s election security system, investigators said. Three of those fraudulent ballots made it past the signature verification check and were counted as legitimate votes.
Maxedon pleaded guilty to a felony count of election forgery and a misdemeanor count of voting twice. Per the agreement, a deferred judgment was issued on the felony count, meaning that Maxedon would avoid prison and have the felony taken off her record if she completes two years of probation without issue. For the misdemeanor count, Judge Bruce Raaum ordered 100 hours of useful public service.
“When I first saw your plea agreement, I was a little bit shocked by it,” Raaum said, contrasting it with Stuart’s guilty plea and the 5-year sentence she received.
Raaum said Stuart’s offense struck him as greater, given that she was a mail carrier and was in a greater position of trust. He also said he “didn’t buy her story that it was to check the election system.”
“I think it was an attempt by her to influence the elections, quite frankly, and I think that deserves very severe consequences, ” Raaum said.
Rubinstein, the district attorney, said that Maxedon cooperated with investigators to help build the prosecution’s case.
“There's a concept that prosecutors deal with all the time, which is, everyone can't be a defendant, somebody has to be the witness,” Rubinstein said.
Maxedon spoke little at the hearing, though she acknowledged her guilt and took accountability.
“I feel horrible. I feel ashamed of myself and I'm ashamed of what I have caused my friends and my family and this community,” Maxedon said.
The sentencing marks the end of Mesa County’s second run-in with election conspiracy. Just before Maxedon and Stuart lifted ballots from the mail stream, former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison for permitting unauthorized access to county voting equipment in an effort to prove malfeasance with the election systems she was charged with overseeing.
Peters is serving her time in the La Vista Correctional Facility in Pueblo.
