Colorado County Clerk Indicted For Tampering With Voting Equipment

Topline

A Colorado grand jury indicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters on 10 counts Tuesday, alleging the believer in election fraud conspiracy theories illegally tampered with her county’s election equipment while investigating potential voter fraud in her county in the 2020 election.

Key Facts

A Mesa County grand jury charged Peters with seven criminal charges consisting of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, attempting to influence a public servant and identity theft, according to Colorado District Attorney Daniel Rubenstein, who issued a release of the charges Wednesday.

Peters’ deputy, Belinda Knisley, was charged with six counts, four of them felonies.

The Mesa County District Court has issued warrants for the arrests of the two women.

Representatives of Peters and Knisley did not immediately respond to Forbes’ requests for comment.

Key Background

In August, images of equipment and passwords for Mesa County voting machines were leaked to the internet and shared with promoters of election fraud conspiracy theories. The indictment claims Peters and Knisley “devised and executed a deceptive scheme” to obtain these images that involved shutting off the county election office’s security cameras, illegally attending a software update to the voting machines and the unlawful use of a person’s identity. “I was concerned that [the people updating the voting machines]
were going to delete some important election files, and so I did a backup image before and after,” Peters told CBS Denver in November. Shortly after the images were leaked, Peters spoke at an event hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a prominent voice of the voter fraud conspiracy.

Surprising Fact

Peters was arrested last week in an unrelated case on charges of obstructing an officer who was attempting to search her iPad after a warrant was issued because she allegedly used it to illegally record a criminal court hearing, according to Colorado Public Radio.

Tangent

Dominion Voting Systems, the company that produced the voting machines with which Peters and Knisley allegedly tampered, is suing Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, former lawyers for Donald Trump, for their baseless claims that the company perpetuated election fraud during the 2020 election.

What To Watch For

Peters announced in February she would be running for Colorado’s Secretary of State role in an appearance on former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s podcast. After the indictment, Colorado Republican Party leaders called on her to suspend her campaign.