Law enforcement investigating election equipment tampering in Pueblo County

Local law enforcement and the Colorado secretary of state’s office are investigating an incident in Pueblo County where a voter allegedly tampered with election equipment during in-person primary election voting on Tuesday.

The unnamed voter tampered with a Dominion Voting Systems ImageCast X machine, which is used to mark a ballot with a voter’s selections before they turn it in, according to a secretary of state’s office spokesperson.

When an election judge went to clean the machine after that voter used it, they noticed evidence it had been interfered with, including an error message. The machine was then removed from use for the rest of the day.

The county notified the secretary of state’s office and is conducting an incident report process.

Pueblo police and the county sheriff’s office interviewed a state-assigned election supervisor in Pueblo and election workers. It’s unknown what agency will ultimately be responsible to lead the investigation.

The spokesperson said that because of how quickly the potential problem was noticed and addressed, they are confident no other voter used the machine. Those machines are not connected with another, so the incident did not have an effect on any votes cast during the primary election.

The secretary of state’s office and law enforcement are still investigating the incident.

Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder Gilbert “Bo” Ortiz declined to comment.