Former Colorado County Clerk Tina Peters Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison

A judge blasted a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her to nine years in prison Thursday for a data breach scheme stemming from rampant false claims of voting machine fraud during the 2020 presidential race.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters — after previously arguing with her for repeatedly making discredited claims about rigged voting machines — that she never took her job seriously.

“I’m sure you’d do it again if you could. “You are as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,” Barrett told her at sentencing. “You’re not a hero. You have abused your position and are a charlatan.

In August, jurors found Peters guilty of allowing a man to improperly use a security card to gain access to the Mesa County election system and misrepresenting the person’s identity.

The man was associated with My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from former President Donald Trump.

At trial, prosecutors said Peters, a Republican, was seeking fame and “focused” on voting problems after he made contact with people who questioned the accuracy of the presidential election results.

Peters, once a hero to election deniers, has not apologized for what happened.

Before her sentencing, Peters insisted that everything she was doing to root out what she considered fraud was for the greater good.

“I have never done anything wrong that would break the law. I just wanted to serve the people of Mesa County,” she told the court.

When Peters tried to make claims, unsupported by any legal authority, about “wireless devices” and software altering ballot images on voting machines, she irritated the judge, who pointed out that the recount showed no discrepancies.

“I’ve let you talk about this enough,” Judge Barrett said. “Votes are votes.”

The judge later pointed out that Peters continued to make public appearances in programs aimed at sympathetic audiences for her own good.

“It’s just more lies. No objective person believes them. No, at the end of the day, you cared about the jets and the podcasts and the people who flew with you,” Barrett said.

He noted that Peters had the right to object, but “it certainly didn’t help her today.”

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The Peters-led breach increased concerns that rogue election workers sympathetic to partisan falsehoods could use their access and knowledge to attack voting processes from the inside.

Peters was convicted of three counts: attempting to influence a public official, one count of conspiracy to commit a crime, official misconduct in the first degree, breach of duty and failure to comply with orders of the Secretary of State.

She was found not guilty of identity theft, one count of conspiracy to commit a crime and one count of criminal impersonation.

In a post on the X social media platform after her sentencing, Peters accused Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems, which created her county’s election system, and lawyers for state election officials of stealing votes.

“I will continue to fight until the Truth that was not allowed to emerge during this trial is revealed. This is a sad day for our nation and the world. But we will win in the end,” she said.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser called her conviction a warning that tampering with voting processes will have consequences.

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