How Mesa County is trying to regain voter trust
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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — In her first year as Mesa County’s clerk and recorder, Bobbie Gross has had to rebuild trust with 120,000 registered voters in the county after her predecessor, Tina Peters, was sentenced to nine years in prison for breaching secure voter data in the 2020 election.
And just when she thought she’d regained the trust of those who elected her, Gross learned that about a dozen ballots in Mesa County were stolen from mailboxes and filled out fraudulently.
State officials learned of the thefts last week and are investigating.
“We have been doing a lot of work in Mesa County to try to show the public how safe and secure this process is,” Gross said. “But there’s still a lot of distrust.”
Gross, a Republican, has worked for Mesa County since 2007. She first worked in the driver’s license division of the clerk’s office, then moved to elections coordinator in 2016 before pivoting to the treasurer’s office in 2019. She was elected clerk and recorder in 2023.
In the four years since former President Donald Trump and his allies pedaled false narratives about the 2020 election, Gross said she’s seen growing distrust from her constituents about the security of their elections, both locally and nationally.
“Don’t listen to social media and try to spot misinformation as you see it,” Gross said she tells skeptical constituents. “Go to the source and ask your elected officials. We’re responsible to our community and we’re happy to talk over any concerns.”
In efforts to regain voters’ trust, Gross has implemented several procedures to increase transparency in her office. Community members can come and observe ballot counting anytime they’d like until the polls close November 5. Election judge trainings are open to the public and the county posts ballots on its website for individuals to count their own results if they’d like.
Following voter skepticism of the fairness of the process following 2020 misinformation, Mesa County commissioners hand-counted ballots and returned the same results as the Dominion voting machines.
“That added a lot of trust to say ‘lots of people have counted these ballots and have all come back with the same result,’” Gross said.
Ensuring the process of selecting and training election judges is transparent has also helped restore trust, Gross said.
Mesa County has 186 election judges, 40% of whom are Democrats and 40% who are Republicans. The remaining 20% of election judges are unaffiliated or third-party voters.
Gross said having volunteer judges who are “regular community members” is helpful in showing voters that elections are watched by their neighbors, not strangers in Washington D.C.
“It’s not me or my staff judging these elections and it’s certainly not politicians,” she said. “It's your neighbors, your coworkers, your friends. They’re your election judges.They work hard in a bipartisan way for Mesa County.”
Though Gross has made every effort to combat national narratives around voter fraud, some constituents in the county said they are not surprised to hear people have taken to extreme measures, including stealing ballots from mailboxes.
Voters in the county said to Rocky Mountain PBS that they trust their neighbors, election judges and ballot counting systems, but believe a small fraction of extremists trying to interfere with elections is inevitable in such a polarized climate.
“It’s going to happen. That doesn’t mean we should allow it to happen and I’m glad we don’t allow it,” said Tom Verderber, who recently moved to Mesa County. “But it does piss you off when you hear about it.”
Gross said she’s also implemented more security measures this election than the county has ever seen in previous years. All ballot boxes are under video surveillance that alert Gross if the cameras detect “suspicious activity” next to ballot boxes or in secure areas where votes are being counted.
Gross gets alerts if someone is in a ballot-counting area after hours, if someone leaves a backpack near a ballot box or if a person lingers near a ballot box in the middle of the night.
Watching a ballot box for any amount of time, at any time, is not a crime, Gross said, but could be considered “suspicious” and warrant law enforcement investigation. If a person were caught meddling with ballot boxes or leaving suspicious items near a ballot box, they could be charged with a crime.
So far, her alerts have only gone off once — for a spiderweb in her office at 2 a.m.
Law enforcement cannot sit and watch ballot boxes because that qualifies as voter intimidation, but Gross has asked officers to keep a careful eye on ballot boxes while they patrol nearby.
Despite all the precautions, Gross said that she doesn’t sleep during election season. Ensuring the elections she oversees are secure and fair is of the utmost importance to her.
High voter turnout and an election without issue are marks of success, for Gross. According to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, Mesa County had 46,685 ballots returned as of Thursday afternoon. Of those ballots, 7,798 were from registered Democrats, while 18,556 were from Republicans. The remaining ballots were from independents and third-party voters.
“If you’re curious or skeptical, please ask questions,” Gross said. “Come and take a tour. Let us earn your trust.”