Colorado Town Sues All Of Its Voters Over Botched Election

A quaint mountain town in Colorado is suing all of its voters over an election officials say was "fatally flawed," the Denver Post reported.

All of Montezuma's 61 registered voters are named in the lawsuit filed this week by the town and its clerk over a botched mayoral and town board election that took place in April. Mistakes outlined in the suit include mismatched election ballots and over a dozen people that voted but weren't town residents.

It's up to a judge to decide whether or not to haul the 61 voters into Summit County District Court to face the allegations. Mayor Lesley Davis, who won by three votes, said they have no choice but to seek legal action.

"This is our only option to have an objective judge take a look at the election controversy and give us his advice on how to move forward," Davis told the newspaper.

Montezuma, which has a total 65 residents, held the election on April Fool's Day with a whopping 12 candidates running for office. Davis claims 13 voters and at least two of the candidates were not town residents, meaning they just own second homes there but voted anyway.

Another mistake was the election ballots did not come with a removable stub to maintain voter anonymity, the lawsuit claims according to the Denver Post.

When the mistake was realized, Town Clerk Helen Moorman tried to fix it by sewing stubs onto the ballots. But she did not realize there were still ID numbers on the ballot that revealed who the voters were.

Some voters have hired a lawyer from Gunnison to challenge the lawsuit, the likes of which one Colorado official said he has never heard of.

"This is certainly an unusual step to take," Andrew Cole, spokesman for the Colorado Secretary of State, told the newspaper.

Montezuma voter Chris Baker said he can't believe he is paying money to a town that's taking him to court.

"It's fairly disturbing that the town is using our tax money to sue us," he told the Denver Post.

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