Tina Peters, former Mesa County Clerk, gets nine years in prison

An unapologetic and unrepentant conspiracy theorist who, as a Mesa County Clerk, arranged illegal access to county voting machines, Tina Peters, has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

While the defense tried to portray Peters's actions as searching for the truth, the prosecution easily demonstrated them as an abuse of her official duties and a personal hunt in which no one expected any evidence to be found.

Peters was found guilty of three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. She was also convicted of first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with an order from the Secretary of State, all misdemeanors.

The investigation began a little more than three years ago when images taken during a secure update of Mesa County's voting equipment surfaced online. At the same time, a copy of Mesa County's hard drive was displayed and discussed at a "cyber symposium" hosted by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who has been at the center of false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. 

Over the course of a lengthy trial, prosecutors laid out a timeline demonstrating that Peters had begun meeting with election conspiracy theorists in early 2021 about assumed "irregularities" in voting totals. In response, Peters and others hatched a plan to bring in an unauthorized person to observe a software update of Dominion Voting Machines. The plot involved creating security credentials for a local man named Gerald Wood and using those credentials to help another man gain access to voting equipment. CPR

Previously:
• Colorado voting machines banned after conspiracy theorist county clerk let unauthorized person in during upgrades