Colorado is known for having the gold standard for safe and secure elections, using all-mail paper ballots and robust audits to verify the accuracy of the results. But more than one hundred years ago, voter fraud was rampant and led to Colorado having 3 different governors in office on the same day.
The year was 1904. What led to the state having three governors in one day? Voter fraud.
“The Democrat was Alva Adams, and the incumbent was a Republican named James Peabody,” said History Colorado’s Shaun Boyd. She is the curator of archives, politics and government and described it as one of the wildest elections in state history.
Adams, the Democrat, narrowly won the governor’s race. However, in the following weeks, news broke that he had cheated.
“The Democrats were accused of sending the same person into the polls in Denver, so stuffing the ballots in Denver and some other places,” Boyd said.
According to History Colorado, one individual was found to have personally voted 169 times in that election, and 717 Democratic ballots were cast in one precinct with only 100 legal voters.
“Democrat-controlled police had promised criminals acquittal if they committed voter fraud by voting multiple times using disguises or simply by traveling from ballot box to ballot box,” according to a History Colorado document on the election.
Republicans controlled the state legislature and decided to remove Adams from office, and install the Republican challenger who had lost the election, Peabody. But it turns out Peabody and Republicans were also found to have cheated.
“Republican mine owners were making their employees vote Republican or get fired,” Boyd said.
Miners reported to authorities that they were being threatened and coerced to vote Republican. In the end, Colorado lawmakers agreed neither man should be governor, so lawmakers and political parties negotiated a compromise on March 16th 1905.
“Adams becomes the governor. He resigns in favor of Peabody. Peabody then immediately resigns in favor of the Lieutenant Governor who was elected independently. They weren’t on the same ticket. And so Jesse McDonald became the governor,” Boyd said.
For months, Boyd said, the corrupt election caused an uproar and the state government came to a standstill while investigations continued.
But the fraud in that election did lead to change.
In 1905, Colorado cracked down on voter fraud making it a more serious charge. It had been considered a casual crime like public drunkenness prior to the election.
Fast forward to today, Colorado holds the unique distinction of being the only state to have three different governors in a single 24-hour time period.
Editor’s note: History Colorado is a financial supporter of CPR News and KRCC. Financial supporters have no editorial influence.
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