Coloradans need to start preparing now for the possibility that Trump’s efforts to create a federal screening system for voters fail spectacularly and their ballots don’t arrive. Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or unaffiliated voter, do not let the White House disenfranchise you.

If a voter’s ballot doesn’t arrive in the mail as expected, voters can always cast a ballot in person at a Voter Service and Polling Center in their county. Early in-person voting in Colorado will open 15 days before election day.

However, the problem is that those centers are not designed to accommodate the more than 3 million voters expected to participate in November’s Midterm election, and even if only a small portion of voters are denied mail ballots by Trump’s new screening system, it could put a huge strain on Election Day.

Counties should start preparing now to open additional voter service centers if lines get long. Trump’s executive order still faces legal challenges and an injunction, but we cannot rely on the Supreme Court to do the right thing. Although the court set a precedent in 2024, saying the court’s role included preventing turmoil during an election, we still worry they will not protect elections from federal interference.

When the justices ordered Colorado to put Trump back on the ballot despite the 14th Amendment’s clear language prohibiting someone who had engaged in an insurrection from holding the presidency, their main justification was this:

“Nothing in the Constitution requires that we endure such chaos — arriving at any time or different times, up to and perhaps beyond the Inauguration.”

Nothing in the Constitution requires that we endure such chaos from the White House — arriving at any time or different times, up to Election Day.

Trump’s executive order has three crucial parts, and all of them have major flaws that promise nothing short of “chaos.”

First, he orders the head of the Social Security Administration and the director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to get together and use their data to create a list of eligible voters for every state. Trump alleges that millions of non-citizens voters are participating in elections, and he sees this as a way to prevent them from voting. Secretary of State Jena Griswold did well to refuse to give Trump voter’s social security numbers in a battle that has gone to court.

However, the data from these organizations could easily exclude eligible voters. U.S. citizens who have recently moved but failed to update their addresses could find their names are not on the “eligible voter” list in their new state even though they have done everything right to register to vote in their new home.

Second, Trump has ordered local election officials to include a barcode on the outside of the envelope that will include voter data to be cross-checked with the new “eligible voter” list the administration approves. Postal Service employees will be tasked with scanning the barcode and ensuring the person is on the list. If a person is not on the list, the Postal Service will not deliver the ballot. This opens up room for error as two systems converge – one based on state voter registration records and one based on a list that is supposed to represent federal data’s records of who would be eligible to vote in the state at a point in time roughly 60 days before the election when it is finalized.

Now voters will be responsible for maintaining their records with the state and with the federal government to maintain their eligibility to vote by mail. If they fail to update their federal records – Trump also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to create an online database where people can check and update their federal records – their ballot will not be delivered.

In Colorado, that will mean the voter who does not receive a ballot by mail will have to vote in person. Fortunately, Colorado has early voting, so there should be time for voters to recognize the mistake and show up in person. But should we find that substantial amounts of ballots are not arriving in mailboxes, tremendous pressure will be put on a system meant to assist the minority of voters who chose to vote in person in Colorado.

All of this is rolling out two months before the election. Only 68 days remain between now and Tuesday, Nov. 3. If Trump were to act responsibly, he’d pause his executive order with the intention of reviving it when there is time to implement it with care so as not to disenfranchise voters inadvertently.

Trump is not acting responsibly, however. He is attempting to solve a very limited problem – non-citizens voting in the U.S. elections —  with a sledgehammer when it really needs a scalpel.

It is a felony for someone who is not a citizen to vote in an election.

Every year there are only a few reported cases of non-citizens casting ballots, and usually it was an honest mistake and not a nefarious plot to sway elections. Immigrants are here at the mercy of our laws, and having a felony charge jeopardizes many legal immigration statuses and for those not here legally, it could make them a target for deportation.

We must take voter fraud seriously, but Trump’s executive order will do more harm than good, and we find it likely to be an unconstitutional infringement on Colorado’s orderly and secure election system.

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A federal judge on Wednesday lifted  to President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting mail voting, even as Democratic state officials filed a new court challenge with the midterm elections fast approaching.

The fresh round of legal wrangling comes just two days after the Supreme Court handed down a procedural ruling in Trump’s favor, and could mean the issue lands before the high court again before the pivotal contests for control of Congress. The first mailed ballots are set to be sent out next week.

The new lawsuit, filed against the U.S. Postal Service by about two dozen Democratically controlled states — including Colorado — marked a new phase in the high-stakes litigation after the Supreme Court  in a separate case, but did not say Trump’s order was legal.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston agreed Wednesday to lift an order prohibiting the Postal Service from carrying out Trump’s order for November’s elections. She wrote that she was “compelled” to do so after the Supreme Court¶¶Ňőap conservative majority ruled in the other case involving the states that an injunction was premature.

Colorado will still mail out all ballots, despite Supreme Court ruling in favor of President Trump’s order

Talwani nevertheless said the executive order could unleash “chaos” and referred to it as “likely unconstitutional.”

The Republican administration can now move forward and implement a Postal Service rule published late Friday. It would require states to follow a uniform envelope style for mail ballots and to give the Postal Service a list of voters eligible to receive them.

Election officials warn it will be impossible to implement the rule before the first wave of mail ballots are sent out next week.

“Across the country, states are already deep into preparations for the 2026 elections. Now, at the last moment, the federal government is attempting to meddle in those preparations and potentially threaten countless Americans’ right to vote,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of 25 Democratic attorneys general filing the new lawsuit, said in a statement. “USPS has no authority to decide who can and cannot vote by mail.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on Wednesday morning called the Supreme Court's ruling "irresponsible" and said it invites "mischief." He criticized the rules as another attempt by Trump to undermine elections and as the federal government inserting itself into something the Constitution delegates to the states.

"There is nothing lawful or appropriate about the president¶¶Ňőap doing," Weiser said. "He’s overstepping his authority, plain and simple. The Supreme Court didn’t need to get into the middle of this preliminary ruling, and certainly didn’t need to do anything to suggest that the president might be on solid ground. He’s not. We’re going to keep fighting it.”

This week, Colorado Secretary of State said the state's voters could still expect to receive their ballots in the mail in early October.

The Trump administration plan faces a third lawsuit originally filed in May in the nation’s capital, though courts there have so far declined to block it. All previous challenges were filed before the administration published its mail ballot rule Friday night.

White House spokesperson Lauren Bis on Wednesday said the Postal Service’s proposals were “commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots” and that the administration would continue to work to implement them to boost “the safety and security of our elections.”

The Postal Service said it would not comment because of the pending lawsuit.

National Democrats on Tuesday cited the rule in asking the federal judge in the Washington case to block Trump’s order after  last spring, saying the administration at the time had not taken concrete action.

In Boston, Talwani also found that the administration had violated a separate injunction she had placed on the Postal Service in drafting the new rule, although she did not take any action against the government. The League of Women Voters originally filed that lawsuit, and on Wednesday the group also asked for a new court order blocking the mail voting plan.

Trump has long targeted mail voting, which  and is disproportionately used by Democrats as a result of Trump’s condemnations. Since returning to power, Trump has tried to claim authority over election rules, saying he thinks Republicans should “take over” vote counting in Democratic areas.

He issued  just months after retaking office, attempting to require documentary proof of citizenship to vote, among other changes. He has also been pushing a sweeping election bill that has stalled in the Senate amid opposition from Democrats and even some within his own party.

Denver Post staff writer Nick Coltrain contributed to this story.

The high court on Monday rejected a challenge from 23 states, including Colorado, that sought to stop Trump’s March executive order restricting mail voting. The court did not give Trump final approval for his attempt to exert federal control over mail-in voting, however. Instead, a majority of justices, in an unsigned order, decided that the states could not prove harm from the executive order, and thus had no standing to sue — yet.

“Where we are right now, today, nothing has changed,” Griswold said Tuesday in an interview, referring to the Nov. 3 general election. “But there is this ongoing fight that is evolving.”

The decision was the latest development in just one of several ongoing fights over the executive order. In another case, a separate court decision . This week’s ruling is also expected to be a precursor to more legal fights. (On Wednesday morning, after this story was published, Colorado joined 24 other states to sue the Trump administration again. The suit argues that the implementation of new rules proposed by the administration would hurt states’ ability to conduct their own elections. The Supreme Court’s ruling had allowed that rulemaking to continue.)

And with less than 70 days before Election Day — and just over a month before county clerks start mailing ballots to Colorado voters — it¶¶Ňőap not clear what changes would even be feasible.

Griswold said it would be “extraordinarily hard for states to change the voting processes,” even if the Trump administration were somehow successful. The U.S. Constitution holds that states oversee their own elections, though Trump’s challenge has no precedent.

“Ultimately, I can’t foresee or predict what the courts will say,” Griswold said. She noted that mail voting remains overwhelmingly popular among Coloradans of all political stripes, with more than 95% of voters casting their ballots that way. “I am optimistic, and I hope they squarely plant themselves on the right side of history.”

Still, the Trump administration heralded the ruling.

“This is a major win for the security of American elections,” Lauren Bis, a spokesperson for the White House, said in a statement. “Tłó±đse are commonsense measures that protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans are electing American leaders. This Administration will continue to lawfully enact the agenda President Trump was elected on — which includes the safety and security of our elections.”

As it stands now, Colorado ballots must go out to overseas voters by Sept. 19. County clerks can start sending ballots to most other voters Oct. 2, about a month before the election. Regular ballots must be returned by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

In his , Trump sought to create a national voter list that the federal government could use to determine people’s eligibility to vote by mail. Part of that would be overseen by the U.S. Postal Service, which on Friday to carry out that task. They require specific formatting for envelopes containing mail ballots and say states must use an electronic system to identify to the Postal Service who is voting by mail. If states don’t comply, their mail ballots wouldn’t get sent.

Andrew Garber, an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, said those rules will almost certainly set the stage for the states to continue their challenge. Garber is one of the lawyers representing the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts in a separate legal challenge to the executive order.

That case resulted in the still-active injunction halting the implementation of the executive order.

“The president still has no authority to determine who gets to vote by mail,” Garber said of the current landscape. “And the U.S. Postal Service is still legally required to deliver the mail.”

The fate of the executive order remains to be seen, even if Garber and others are confident that Trump overstepped his authority. He said any attempt to outright cancel mail-in voting would be an “impossible needle to thread.”

Instead, he warned of mass confusion and worried about “rushed, flawed implementation” if the new rules were allowed to proceed. The Postal Service isn’t designed to gatekeep which voters can receive ballots — and trying to force a new system in place with only a month before voters start to receive ballots is a recipe for chaos, he said.

The ongoing, multifront legal fight — with multiple cases in multiple stages of litigation — also carries its own risk of confusing and disenfranchising voters, he said.

“It’s fair to say right now (that the fight over mail ballots is) more smoke than fire,” Garber said. “With the caveat that smoke is still really harmful.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

George Hall, 55, died while serving a 10-year sentence for assaulting another inmate with a dangerous weapon, according to a news release from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Hall arrived at the outside of Florence on Aug. 6, prison officials said.

Prison employees found Hall unresponsive and started life-saving measures shortly after noon Monday, according to the release. Paramedics later pronounced Hall dead.

Officials did not specify in the release where Hall was found or announce his cause of death. No employees or other inmates were injured, prison officials said.

Hall was of attacking another inmate from behind with a weapon constructed from a sock and a metal combination lock, . At the time of that attack, Hall was serving a 25-year sentence for the 1993 attempted murder of a U.S. Postal Service worker in Florida, federal prosecutors said.

The penitentiary where Hall died is separate from , a supermax prison in the same federal complex.

Re: “Attack on Pope Leo, posting of Jesus image criticized,” April 14 news story

When in the course of human events, could someone have ever foreseen the time when the president of the United States would have to explain why he posted and unposted a picture of himself as Jesus? Will there be additional low points of this presidency before Congress realizes it is time to face the reality of the president¶¶Ňőap mind and protect what¶¶Ňőap left of the reputation of the office?

Cindy Robertson, Denver

Just when you think President Trump can’t get any crazier, he does (e.g., attacking Iran, insulting the pope, etc.). What will be the crisis du jour tomorrow? I think it¶¶Ňőap time for Congress to begin 25th Amendment proceedings. Please. Before it¶¶Ňőap too late.

Flint Whitlock, Denver

Let’s understand the impeachment clause

Re: “,” April 9 commentary

Kirsten Matoy Carlson is mistaken about the consequences of a guilty verdict by the U.S. Senate after an impeachment trial. She states, “If the person is convicted and removed from office, only then can senators vote on whether to permanently disqualify that person from ever again holding federal office.”

That is not what the Constitution says! states: “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States…” There is only one vote.

Nowhere in the Constitution with regard to impeachment is there any reference or mandate that after conviction, senators “may” or “can” vote to bar the convicted person from holding federal office in the future. Legal scholars hinge that false opinion on their false understanding of grammar. The word “and” is a conjunction. It joins independent clauses, indicating a connection between the two, especially between items of the same type or class. Removal from office and barring from holding any other office are of the same class and type! In essence, the Senate is saying, “You violated your oath of office and the public trust, therefore you are removed from office and cannot be trusted in any federal office in the future.”

Tom Hubbard, Denver

Tax return takes nonsensical route to Ogden, Utah via USPS

I sent my tax return to the IRS in Ogden, Utah, via certified mail on March 13. It took a vacation and flew to Sarasota, Fla., then to Tampa, then back to Sarasota before making a leisurely trip to its original destination. It arrived there on March 27.

Using flying distance, an approximate 400-mile trip became a 3,550-mile journey.

Conspiracy theorists want to know whether the USPS has been tasked with delaying our refunds as long as possible. Or are they just practicing for what they plan to do with our ballots for the midterms?

Dee Nelson, Centennial

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For 80 years, the city of Loveland has been offering people the chance to give their Valentine’s messages some TLC with its Valentine re-mailing program.

What started as a cute nod to the city’s name has grown into an extravagant, on-brand season of celebrating this little holiday.

“Tłó±đ has a powerful ripple effect that reaches far beyond the cards themselves,” Mindy McCloughan, president and CEO of the Loveland Chamber of Commerce, said during a recent press conference to kick off this year’s festivities. “Locally, the program brings the community together.”

The remailing program began in 1946, when the local postmaster and a businessman came up with Loveland’s stamp-collecting oddity. It took a few years before they found the right combination of marketing it as “Tłó±đ Sweetheart City,” and gaining national recognition.

Here’s how it works: Anyone in the world can send a pre-addressed and pre-stamped Valentine’s card in a larger envelope to “U.S. Postal Service, 446 E. 29th St., Loveland, CO 80538” before Feb. 2, 2026. Volunteers — some from corporate sponsors, others who might come off the annual wait list for this opportunity — then carefully use a rubber stamp with this year’s winning original verse on the envelope. From there, the cards go to a specific post office in Loveland, where they get a postmark recognizing that it was mailed from Loveland.

It takes more than 150 volunteers over the course of two weeks, working in four- to five-hour shifts, to successfully operate the program, according to McCloughan. A core group of five seasoned volunteers oversees the stamping, plus handles any problems that require an experienced eye with a meticulous attention to detail.

When demand to volunteer exceeded the available spots, the team came up with the idea for a shadow program that allows wait-listers to observe the volunteers so that, like understudies, they can step in when there is availability. For those who want to volunteer, contact the Loveland Chamber of Commerce, but know that the combination of a decline in the amount of mail and the increase in volunteers means there may not be much need.

“At the program’s peak, more than 300,000 Valentine’s were received each year to be stamped with Loveland’s distinctive Valentine message,” said McCloughan, calling this the “largest Valentine’s remailing program in the world.”

“Today, we continue to process approximately 100,000 Valentine’s annually,” she added.

This year, there were two contest winners for both card and verse — meaning there are two choices for the cards.

Tiffany Villavicencio, a Loveland native who has won previously, designed a card showing a sunset behind the lake with the verse, “For 80 years each Valentine’s Day, Loveland has found a unique way to say, we’re sending you love, thoughts & well wishes, from the Sweetheart City with hugs & kisses.”

Jeff Niedens also won with a design showcasing the town name and a backlit tree. His winning verse: “Beneath the old oak tree, the sun’s soft shining light, Our hearts grow steady, gentle, and bright. Heart intertwined like the branches above, Now and forever deeply in love.”

In a third contest, Corry McDowell won with artwork and verse for the stamp that goes on the back of cards, which reads, “In the Sweetheart City/Joy takes flight/80 Years of Love/shining bright” with an image of a child cowboy branding a tree with “80.”

In addition to the remailing, people can order one of these original cards (winner of the annual art contest) that is inscribed or blank through the Loveland Chamber of Commerce, then have it sent through the remailing program with the various stamps and postmarks.

Another option is to go to the historic post office downtown (601 Cleveland Ave.), where there is a charming, hand-painted mailbox inside to drop these special cards and letters for the distinctive postmarking. The deadline to get the stamping and postmarking for mail within the continental United States is Feb. 7, and Feb. 10 for mailing within Colorado.

Charles Lammers, tourism marketing manager for Visit Loveland, said “there is no way to gather exact figures for the total economic impact of Loveland’s annual Valentine season,” but did offer that the Loveland Sweetheart Festival — to be held on Saturday, Feb. 14, this year — brings in “anywhere between $700,000 to $1.3 million in revenue for the community.”

On the website, there are a plethora of “official” Valentine’s Day products from Loveland, such as cupcakes, beer, wine and coffee. There are even sweetheart deals on lodging during this special time.  has two packages: a one-night stay in a cozy cabin that includes dinner and breakfast for $350-$400 per couple or a two-night cabin stay with dinner, live music one night, and Sunday brunch for $550-$600 per couple. Trail rides are available for an extra cost and are weather dependent.  (Look for other package deals at participating hotels.)

More adventurous? Treat your honey on a ride in a red heart-shaped hot air balloon. in Loveland can make hearts soar with a $375-$1,200 ride in a basket that is held aloft by a red heart-shaped balloon.

Sweetheart Festival

And don’t miss the big day on Saturday, Feb. 14, when Loveland hosts the Sweetheart Festival. Here’s the schedule of events:

9 a.m. The Loveland Visitors Center opens. Purchase a limited-edition lock ($20), customize it and then attach it to the L-O-V-E sculpture just outside, or save it for the enormous heart-shaped sculpture in town by the lake.

9:30 a.m. The Sweetheart Classic Race starts at Fourth and Railroad streets. (Until Jan. 31, race fees range from $48.70 to $80.50, then will increase.)

10 a.m. The Sweetheart Festival begins in the Foundry Plaza.  Throughout the day, you can expect live ice sculpting demonstrations, live music, fire performers, food, a chance to see Miss Valentine, and “selfie stations” with backdrops like neon heart shapes for capturing your special moments.

11 a.m. The Little Miss Valentine and Little Mr. Cupid contest at the Rialto Theater. It’s open to ages 4 and under; registration opens Jan. 26 and costs $10.

11 a.m. The B Sweet Cupcakes shop opens. Get your fill of Sweetheart Cherry Chocolate Chip cupcakes.

12 p.m. The Grimm Brothers Taproom + Kitchen opens. Try the 15th edition of the Bleeding Heart, based on a German-style porter.

12 p.m. The Sweet Heart Winery opens. Order a glass of the Amador County AVA Barbera 2023, the official 2026 Valentine’s wine.

3 p.m. The group wedding (or vow renewal) at the Pulliam County Building. (The fee of  $160 per couple includes a gift bag with a keepsake lock, photo, marriage certificate and more.

7 p.m. The Sweetheart Ball at the Pulliam Building, starting at 7 p.m. Vintage 1940s attire is recommended for this throwback dance. Tickets are $75 to $99 per person and are available for purchase at .

The prolific and popular Colorado nature photographer, who died in 2023 at 73, is getting his very own stamp this month with Colorado Statehood, as the edition will be called.

The forever-stamp features a photo of Jagged Mountain, a picturesque thirteener located in the San Juan Mountain Range of southwestern Colorado shot by Fielder, with design by Derry Noyes, according to a statement.

The U.S. Postal Service will hold a free, public “first-day-of-issue” event at 9 a.m. , 1200 Broadway in Denver, with commemorative editions of the stamp. Attendees can RSVP at .

The location is no accident, as the release coincides with the opening of History Colorado’s own John Fielder exhibit,

Fielder’s exhibit, which features “sun-dappled valleys and … rugged slopes in our state’s colorful scenery,” according to museum officials, joins the museum’s full Colorado Collection of Fielder’s work, which he donated to the institution before his death for noncommercial, research and student use.

“As History Colorado members selected photographs for this exhibition, I was struck by their deep emotional connection to John Fielder’s work,” said exhibition developer and historian Katherine Mercier in a statement. “His powerful photos of Colorado’s mountains brought back personal memories of the state’s beauty and wonder. This exhibition is a love letter to John Fielder and his mountain photographs from History Colorado’s members.”

History Colorado’s 6,000-image Fielder collection can be accessed for free at , To RSVP for the Jan. 24 event or get more information on collector’s versions of the 20-stamp sheets, visit .

Alan Ritchey Inc., a trucking and distribution company based in Valley View, Texas, that it will lay off the 729 employees at the hub, located at 20500 E. Colfax Ave. in Aurora, on Feb. 28.

“This layoff will be permanent, and the Company’s operations will permanently cease. Affected employees are not represented by a union and bumping rights (that is, the right to avoid termination by displacing another employee) do not exist. However, employees may apply for positions at other Company facilities,” Robby Ritchey, the company’s CEO, wrote in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, letter to the state on Tuesday.

Ritchey expressed regret in the letter that he couldn’t provide more notice, but added that the USPS informed the company on Dec. 29 that it would terminate its contract Feb. 28 and that it had refused to extend the performance period as it had done over the past year.

“Further, the Company could not foresee that the USPS would provide such short notice of termination, since we had previously been informed that USPS would modify and transition the facility to a USPS facility, a process that would take more than 61 days,” Ritchey wrote.

A phone call on Monday with the USPS failed to reverse the decision, and the company was left with no other options, he said.

The largest category of eliminated jobs involves packers and shippers at 443. There are also 163 forklift operators and 76 dock clerk operators who are losing their jobs.

The USPS announced it would switch to a system of regional transfer hubs to improve mail delivery as part of its that seeks to make the service financially stable and self-sufficient. It converted its Denver Peak Annex into the Denver Regional Transfer Hub and, in October 2024, Alan Ritchey began managing the facility.

In July, USPS Deputy Assistant Inspector General Mary Lloyd , stating that it lacked sufficient security measures to keep registered mail safe and recommending that the management contract be terminated at the end of 2025.

An April inspection found numerous packages cut open and with their shipping stickers and contents missing. Damaged packages were not turned over to USPS staff per protocol, and the number of damaged packages was much higher than at comparable facilities run in-house.

“We identified deficiencies that put mail at risk of theft and unauthorized handling,” according to the audit. “Postal Service management expressed concern that contract employees were opening PMOD (the Priority Mail Open and Distribute service) sacks to pilfer select medications.”

Normally, when a contract changes hands or operations are brought in-house, current employees are part of the transition. But the audit suggests that the USPS may not extend employment offers to the contract employees being let go.

A divided panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Aug. 29 that laws regulating the trucking industry do not prevent the resort town from excluding UPS and FedEx.

“Tłó±đse statutes ordinarily preempt local trucking regulations, but exceptions exist for motor vehicle safety,” Judge Robert Bacharach wrote. “Do these exceptions allow a town to regulate trucking companies that frequently deliver goods in a pedestrian mall? We answer yes.”

Judge Gregory Phillips disagreed with his colleagues. Dissenting from the 2-1 opinion in favor of Vail, Phillips wrote that the truck ban cannot be logically tied to pedestrian safety, since Vail still allows similar trucks driven by a city contractor, 106West Logistics, on the malls.

“Indeed, the amended ordinance restricts neither delivery vehicle size nor delivery vehicle frequency. Instead, it regulates based on the owner of the vehicle,” Phillips noted.

In 2022, Vail passed an ordinance prohibiting delivery trucks from entering Vail Village and Lionshead Village, to make those areas friendlier to pedestrians. Trucks had to leave their cargo at loading docks, where small 106West carts would then pick it up and deliver it.

The ordinance initially made an exception for commercial mail carriers, like FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. But in 2023, Vail began cracking down on them as well. The Colorado Motor Carriers Association sued to stop that crackdown. Because trucking is federally regulated, towns can impose their own rules only when public safety is jeopardized, it noted.

The industry group won a victory in late 2023 when U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney blocked enforcement of the ban, finding it had been enacted to maintain mountain aesthetics rather than save lives. She, too, questioned why 106West¶¶Ňőap vehicles were allowed.

That ruling was appealed to the 10th Circuit, which sided with Vail. In a statement this week, the Town of Vail said it remains “committed to providing a safe environment for everyone.”

“Tłó±đ 10th Circuit¶¶Ňőap opinion directing the district court to dissolve a preliminary injunction that barred the town from fully enforcing its loading and delivery regulations is a significant step forward in Vail’s ongoing efforts to reduce vehicular-pedestrian interactions,” it said.

The 10th Circuit¶¶Ňőap three-judge panel decided that Sweeney was “substituting her own judgment about better ways to enhance safety” when she determined Vail was not focused on safety because it allows other trucks on the malls. “Connection to safety isn’t lost just because a more expansive restriction might have been more effective,” the judges wrote.

“We’re not policymakers, but the town’s leaders are. Those leaders presumably enjoy expertise when deciding how to address safety concerns. Recognition of that expertise leaves us little room to second-guess the leadership’s policy choices based on our policy preferences.”

The Town of Vail is represented by David Goldfarb, Josh Marks and Abbey Derechin with Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti in Boulder. The CMCA’s lawyers are James Eckhart, Shannon Cohen and Adam Smedstad at Scopelitis Garvin Light Hanson & Feary in Indianapolis.

The CMCA’s lawyers did not respond to BusinessDen’s request for comment on the ruling.

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Vicki Lyn Stuart, 64, was arrested Nov. 6 after Mesa County residents contacted election officials in late October about their ballots being rejected for signature discrepancies despite never having voted.

All of the ballots were stolen from the same U.S. Postal Service mail route, and Stuart was a substitute carrier on the route when the ballots were delivered.

Investigators with the say Stuart stole 16 ballots, three of which made it past the signature review process and were cast in the election.

Stuart pleaded guilty to identity theft and forgery, both felonies, as part of a plea agreement. Prosecutors dismissed other charges of identity theft, forgery and attempting to influence a public servant.

Her attorney did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.

Another Mesa County woman charged in the scheme, Sally Jane Maxedon, is set to appear in court on July 15, court records show.