Colorado ex-elections clerk who leaked voting machine data gets 9 years in prison

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (CN) — Calling former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters a charlatan peddling snake oil, a Colorado judge on Thursday sentenced her to nine years in prison for committing four felonies and three misdemeanors related to a 2021 leak of voting machine data.

“I’m convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You are as defiant a defendant as this court has ever seen,” 21st Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett said.

When a group of conservative constituents questioned the results of the 2021 Grand Junction municipal election, Peters instructed her deputy clerk to turn off security cameras and arranged for an unauthorized associate to observe and photograph a voting machine update.

Her actions came to light after Ron Watkins, a key player in the QAnon conspiracy movement, posted the data and passwords on the social media site Telegram.

Following a 10-day trial in August, a jury found Peters guilty of three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one felony count of conspiracy to commit impersonation, plus misdemeanor counts of official misconduct, violating her duties and failing to comply with the secretary of state’s requirements.

In Barrett’s view, prison was the only appropriate sentence, because he considered Peters more dangerous than the trauma-laden violent offenders he typically sees seated at the defense table.

“This is what makes Ms. Peters such a danger for our community: her position provided her a pulpit on which to preach,” said the judge, an appointee of Democratic Governor Jared Polis. “Prison is for those folks who are a danger to all of us, whether it be by the pen or the sword or the word of mouth.”

County Commissioner Cody Davis calculated a dollar cost of Peters’ actions around $1.4 million, factoring in legal defenses, salary paid to Peters while she was on leave, staff sent to support the clerk’s office in her absence and the cost of conducting hand counts in subsequent elections.

“We felt forced to do so to show people they could trust their elections here in Mesa County,” Davis said.

Barrett pressed Davis on the results of the hand counts, which yielded the same results as ballots counted by Dominion and Clear Vote machines.

Republican District Attorney Dan Rubinstein urged Barrett to impose the maximum sentence against Peters, and dispelled her claims that he was acting under direction of Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat.

“The secretary of state has played zero role in my decision to prosecute this case, like Ms. Peters, I was elected to serve this community,” Rubinstein said. “This is being brought on behalf of the community.”

Peters’ defense attorney Michael Edminister, of Carbondale, asked Judge Barrett to put aside the politicized nature of the case and to sentence her to probation.

“I recognize this has been a very politicized and volatile and publicized prosecution,” Edminister said. “Our client has been free, on bond, and has traveled outside the state multiple times, and in each case she has complied with the courts’ orders. She is absolutely not a flight risk.”

Others who testified in support of Peters included Dave Bryan, a pastor at the Church of Glad Tidings in Yuba City, California, and former Elbert County Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder, who, like Peters, took unauthorized photos of voting equipment in 2021.

Douglas Frank, an infamous mathematician who popularized community canvasing to uncover voter roll irregularities, flew in on his own bill to support Peters, whom he considers a friend.

Peters, given ample time to speak, recalled her desire to investigate election interference on behalf of her constituents. In hopes of clearing up the record, she also presented evidence that had been rejected during trial, including text messages between her and one of the witnesses who she claimed lied on the stand, and iPad data that she said indicated the injustice of her receiving a contempt conviction in another case.

“Just because you’re blind to the truth does not mean the truth was not there,” Peters said.

She also shared her love for her son, Remington Peters, a Navy seal who tragically died during a parachuting demonstration in 2017. Tina Peters told the court she believed her son was assassinated for his work on human trafficking and that a local attorney had forced her husband to divorce her while he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

“I don’t deserve to go into a prison where other people have committed heinous crimes,” Peters said as her voice cracked and as tears mounted. “Some people say I’m not remorseful, but I am, I never expected just doing an image that was completely legal before and after the trusted build would land me here.”

In addition to serving nearly a decade behind bars, Peters must pay $3,000 in fines and complete three years of parole upon her release. Barrett declined her attorneys’ request to stay her sentence pending her appeal so Peters was quietly taken into custody.

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