Indicted Colorado elections clerk appears in court
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado county elections clerk who was jailed after being accused of plotting to breach voting system technology that is used across the U.S. made her first court appearance by video Thursday.
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters made no comment during the brief hearing before District Court Judge Matthew Barrett as she watched remotely from the county detention center. Peters surrendered to authorities Wednesday following a grand jury indictment alleging she was part of a “deceptive scheme” to breach state elections systems in the western Colorado county.
The judge reduced Peters' bail from $500,000 to $25,000 but ordered her to surrender her passport and not to leave Colorado pending her next court date on May 24. He did tell Peters' attorneys he would consider a request to allow Peters to travel to North Carolina to attend the funeral of her father, who according to her attorneys passed away overnight.
Peters wore a yellow jail shirt and watched patiently during the hearing. The judge ordered her not to have any contact with elections employees, witnesses in the case or a co-defendant, Deputy County Clerk Belinda Knisley.
Peters has called the charges against her a politically motivated attempt to sabotage her intent to run for Colorado secretary of state this year.
Knisley also has denied wrongdoing. The judge ordered her bail set at $10,000 and she also was ordered to avoid contact with Peters, the elections office and witnesses in the case.
Peters is a Republican elected in 2018 who has repeatedly appeared with supporters of former President Donald Trump who made false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. She faces seven felony and three misdemeanor counts, including attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation and first-degree official misconduct.
The indictment, filed in Mesa County District Court, alleges that Peters and Knisley participated in a plan designed to “breach security protocols, exceed permissible access to voting equipment, and set in motion the eventual distribution of confidential information to unauthorized people.”
State election officials first became aware of a security breach in Mesa County last summer when a photo and video of confidential voting system passwords were posted on social media and a conservative website.
State officials contend a copy of Mesa County’s voting system hard drive also was distributed and posted online. The copy included proprietary software developed by Dominion Voting Systems that is used by election offices around the country. Experts say the unauthorized release provided a potential “practice environment” that would allow anyone to probe for vulnerabilities that could be exploited during a future election.
According to the indictment, Peters falsely introduced a person as a county employee during a May 2021 visit by state officials to prepare county voting equipment for last November's election. County records showed that an access card assigned to the person was used to enter a secure area in the election office before the visit.
Federal authorities also are investigating.
Colorado’s current secretary of state, Democrat Jena Griswold, persuaded a judge to prohibit Peters from overseeing last year’s elections in Mesa County and has asked for a similar injunction for this year’s elections.
