“Because I Can” Colorado GOP Chairman Steve Curtis and Voter Fraud

Steve Curtis used to be a pretty big deal in Colorado politics in addition to being a radio talk show host. He isn’t so big a deal any longer. He was sentenced to 4 years of probation plus 300 hours of community service as the result of voter fraud.

When you first hear of what Steve Curtis did, you might be inclined to say, “It wasn’t such a big deal.” In the overall scheme of crimes and misdemeanors, it may not be the crime of the century, but if we go a bit beneath the surface it is quite serious and troubling.

The Chairman – Steve Curtis

We need to first establish that Steve Curtis was former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party. If anyone knows – or should know – the mechanics and the ethics of voting, we would imagine it would be the state’s most powerful political figurehead. Whether Independent, Democrat or Republican, we would expect our chair person to know the in’s and outs of the law.

Not that it’s a test one way or the other, but Steve Curtis is divorced. The legal separation was obviously acrimonious. In 2016, his wife’s mail in ballot was delivered to the house. She had by then moved to Charleston, S.C. to get away from him, but she was still a Colorado resident. She wasn’t there, so he took it upon himself to vote on her behalf. It is an illegal act.

The problem came when Kelly Curtis (the ex) called the Weld County clerk and recorder to get her mail-in ballot, she was told she had already voted. This set a chain of events into place that led all of the way to her ex-husband. They were able to find “her” ballot and do DNA testing on it. The DNA was Steve’s.

When caught, he tried to convince the jury that he signed the ballot for her, at her request, as she was suffering from a diabetic episode in the middle of the night. He then told the court that he mailed it in for her the next day. He compounded one lie with another. He added one unethical act on top of another.

More Than a Single Vote

As I stated above, this isn’t a scandal about grand larceny, a Ponzi scheme or murder. It is about a vindictive ex-husband who decided to sign and then mail in a ballot. However, the ex-husband once purported to represent the highest level of the voting infrastructure. He ultimately set policy for his party and was responsible for “running” politicians in state-wide races. He presided over the very mechanics of his party’s purpose.

Whether GOP or Democrat is irrelevant to this conversation, as for sure, there have been many recent cases of fraud from the Left.

It is more than a single vote, it casts a suspicious light on all of the ethical decisions that Steve Curtis made while he was state chair. More than that, it is an indictment as to how ethics is taught at the state level.

This is not the only case of a marriage going sour! However, in most cases the ex- might have been inclined to either forward the ballot (at no charge) or if really angry, deposit it in a paper shredder. Curtis made the conscious decision to commit voter fraud. Suppose when Steve Curtis had been state chair that 100 ballots “were found” or a 1,000, and were falsely signed?

In any case of fraud, one of the components to that fraud must be a sense of rationalization. How did Steve Curtis rationalize away his ex-wife’s vote when he knew what he was doing was wrong? How did he rationalize lying about her physical condition when he knew she was not sick, but thousands of miles away? Was it anger? Was it wanting to push a political agenda or to encourage, no matter how small, an additional cast vote to influence the outcome of an election?

In the end, it makes little difference. What is apparent is that there was no ethical training that Steve Curtis had embraced despite his once powerful status.

Steve Curtis committed a serious crime that strikes at the very heart of our democracy. My deepest concern is to wonder at how often such crimes are committed.

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