January 1, Man Arrested For Tampering with Voting Machine

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY…
2016: Republican Donald Trump is elected President of the United States of America, defeating democrat Hillary Clinton, who received 2.9 million more votes.

A registered Democrat in Colorado was arrested on suspicion of tampering with a voting machine.

The Pueblo Police Department arrested Richard Patton, 31, on Thursday on charges of tampering with a voting machine and cyber crimes, the department said in a statement.

Patton allegedly inserted a USB thumb drive into a voting machine at a polling place during the state’s primary election in June.

Voting equipment in Colorado is equipped with locks and tamper-evident seals. If someone tries to tamper with a voting machine, the anti-tampering measures are triggered, and the machine becomes inoperable.

“On the afternoon of June 28, poll workers heard noises coming from a voting booth. When a poll worker went to investigate and clean the machine, they saw an error message and notified a supervisor. Tamper-evident seals on the machine appeared to be disturbed, the secretary’s office said. The machine was immediately taken out of service for investigation,” CBS News reported.

The Pueblo Police Department said they “would like to assure the community that all voter safeguards put in place to protect the voter process were successful. No information has been found to be breached at this time.”

“This is still an active and ongoing investigation,” the department noted.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said this is the first arrest and potential prosecution under a new law broadening the definition of tampering with election equipment, which is now a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.

“The atmosphere we have around elections is so rumor-generated these days, and I feel like a lot of the public feel like we’re the enemy when our staff and judges are the ones protecting democracy,” said Gilbert Ortiz, Pueblo County’s clerk and recorder. “This just proves to me that Colorado’s system has so many checks and balances it’s just impossible for anybody to tamper with our elections.”

Ortiz confirmed that Patton has been registered as a Democratic voter since 2019, when he switched his affiliation from the Green Party.

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Source: CBS News