A Colorado man was arrested last week after he was caught allegedly inserting a USB flash drive into a voting machine. Richard Patton, 31, of Pueblo, was taken into custody on charges of violating election law during the primary race in June.
CBS News reported, “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.” Additionally, the secretary’s office said that tamper-evident seals on the machine appeared to be disturbed, and the machine was immediately taken out of service.” However, Patton did cast a ballot that day. Gilbert Ortiz, the clerk, and recorder for Pueblo County, claims that he was identified because he provided poll workers with his driver’s license as identification before casting the ballot.
The Pueblo Police Department stated, “Detectives from the Pueblo Police Department High-Tech Crime Unit were able to identify 31-year-old, Richard Patton as the suspect that attempted to tamper with the voting station.” The department added, “We 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.”
Patton was detained on suspicion of misdemeanor cybercrime—unauthorized access and felony interference with voting machinery. He is being held at the Pueblo County Judicial Center without bond. The registrar and recorder of Pueblo County said he switched his voter registration from Green Party to Democrat in 2019.
