Election Denier Will Get Some Time In The Iron College!

I'm not going to jail, I am a white woman.

Winners and losers of 2024.

The former Grand Junction, Colorado election worker who allowed an election denialer into a secured room to steal information from Dominion Systems was found guilty.

She could face up to 20 years in the iron college for her actions.

Defiant to the end, Tina Peters strongly believe that the Dominion Systems voting machines changed votes from Donald J. Trump to Joe Biden. She was a part of the Mike Lindell Cyber Syposium and was a folk hero among the far right.

Her grift cost her not only her job but it will be a costly set of fines at most five years of the 20 in the iron college.

Peters, the Republican former county clerk and right-wing folk hero, was found guilty Monday on four of seven felony counts against her, and guilty of all three misdemeanor counts. The charges related to one of the most significant election security breaches in recent years.

Peters, who declined to testify at trial, is the former clerk and recorder of Mesa County, Colorado, which is home to Grand Junction and around 150,000 people. She became a cause célèbre for the nationwide election denial movement after she was indicted in relation to the security breach ― maintaining that the breach occurred while she was trying to investigate Dominion voting machines, and that her actions were legal.

The jury reached the verdict after about four hours of deliberation Monday. Peters was not taken into custody at the courthouse but rather instructed to report to a probation officer by noon Tuesday.

She’ll face a sentencing hearing on Oct. 3. Based on the verdict, Peters could face anywhere from 7¾ to 22½ years in prison, according to Marshall Zelinger, a reporter at KUSA-TV in Denver.

“Tina Peters willfully compromised her own election equipment trying to prove Trump’s Big Lie,” Jena Griswold, Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state, said in a statement reacting to the verdict.

“She has been found guilty of 4 felonies and 3 misdemeanors by a jury of her peers and will now face the consequences of her actions. Today’s verdict sends a clear message: we will not tolerate any effort to threaten the security of our gold standard elections. I am proud that justice for Colorado voters has been served today.”

Mike Lindell relied on Tina Peters to push his bogus conspiracy theories.

After the 2020 election, Peters secretly brought a computer analyst aligned with the election denial movement into a protected software update meeting for Dominion election machines in her county, wary of state officials erasing election information. The analyst attended the update under a disguise, using the name and access badge of a local Mesa County resident.

Digital images from the software update soon leaked online ― published by Ron Watkins, a key QAnon figure ― and state officials quickly descended upon the Mesa County elections office to investigate.

Peters was indicted in 2022, and pleaded not guilty ahead of trial to three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, and one count each of criminal impersonation, identity theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failing to comply with the secretary of state. The first seven counts were felonies, the last three were misdemeanors.

Peters was found guilty Monday of all felony counts except one of the counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, criminal impersonation, and identity theft. She was found guilty of the three counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one of the counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation.

The crux of the case against Peters was that she used the identity of Gerald “Jerry” Wood, a local resident, as cover for the computer analyst, Conan Hayes, who attended the software update, which is known as a “trusted build.” Peters, working with Hayes, a former pro surfer who co-founded the clothing brand RVCA, meant to deceive both county employees and employees from the Colorado secretary of state’s office, prosecutors argued; the office had previously denied Peters’ request to include members of the public in the trusted build.

Peters’ then-deputy in the county elections office, Belinda Knisley, also faced charges, but reached a plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to testify against Peters in order to avoid prison time. Prosecutors alleged Peters had instructed Knisley to have security cameras turned off prior to the trusted build.

Another former Peters employee who testified against her as part of a plea deal, Sandra Brown, told the jury that Peters introduced her to a “new hire” ahead of the trusted build, but that she grew suspicious after she overheard “Jerry” talking about taking “forensic images” of voting systems in other states. Peters “lied to me,” Brown said. Both Brown and Knisley recalled Peters telling them, “I’m fucked,” after images of the software update were published online.

Despite ― or perhaps because of ― the charges against her, Peters became popular statewide among Republican Party faithful, earning the support of 61% of delegates at the Colorado GOP assembly to be the Republican nominee for secretary of state. Still, she later lost the actual statewide Republican primary ― then raised $250,000 for a recount, which confirmed the loss.