Mesa County, Colorado, a place often hailed by leftist media as an example of “secure and safe” elections, is now facing a scandal that blows holes in the far-left’s favorite talking point: “Voter fraud doesn’t exist.”

Over a dozen mailed ballots were intercepted and cast fraudulently before the actual voters even had a chance to receive them. This alarming situation has sparked a full-blown criminal investigation, and three of those fraudulent votes were counted before the tampering was caught.

For years, conservative voices have been sounding the alarm about voter fraud, only to be dismissed by mainstream media and liberal pundits as “conspiracy theorists.”

But now, even Colorado’s radical leftist Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who said “Colorado is the Gold Standard of Election,” was forced to admit that something went very wrong.

According to Griswold, the state’s Department of State was alerted to the fraud on Tuesday. The ballots were filled out, signed, and returned via USPS blue boxes—mailboxes, not ballot drop boxes. This discovery was only made during the state’s signature verification process.

Griswold revealed that at least four ballots made it through the initial signature checks, and three were fraudulently counted. The Mesa County Clerk, Bobbie Gross, pulled the remaining ballots from the final tally.

Some voters received messages through the state’s BallotTrax system, alerting them that their ballots had been received, only for them to respond, “But I never got my ballot!”

This situation casts a shadow over Colorado’s supposedly iron-clad election security. It’s not just the fraud itself that’s disturbing, but the methodical way the system was exploited.

Some of the intercepted ballots were signed by the same individual, pointing to what appears to be a coordinated effort to manipulate the vote, according to CBS News.

After uncovering these fraudulent ballots, Mesa County Clerk Bobbie Gross handed the investigation over to the 21st Judicial District Attorney, who is now pursuing a criminal investigation.

Griswold tried to downplay the severity of the issue, repeating the well-worn narrative that “Colorado’s elections are safe and secure.”

She boasted that the fraud was caught quickly due to the state’s advanced security systems like BallotTrax.

“The investigation into this situation is ongoing,” Griswold said. “What we also know is that Colorado’s elections are safe and secure, and this attempt at fraud was found and investigated quickly because of the groundbreaking tools that we have here.”

But for many conservatives, this rings hollow. If the fraud had gone undetected in some ballots, how many others might slip through the cracks?

However, Clerk Gross expressed concern over the Secretary of State’s public disclosures, suggesting that such premature announcements could jeopardize the integrity of the ongoing investigation. “While we understand the Secretary of State’s desire to make public statements, this is our community and our investigation,” Gross said.

“It is critical that we follow proper procedures to ensure a thorough and effective investigation without tipping off those involved. The people of Mesa County deserve transparency and accountability, but it must be done in a manner that protects the integrity of the investigation,” she added.

The executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, Matt Crane, expressed disbelief, stating that in his 20 years of overseeing elections, he’s never witnessed anything like this, according to CPR News.

The U.S. Postal Service has also launched its own investigation into how the ballots were intercepted.

Watch the press conference: