Former Colorado County Clerk Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison for Election Tampering

Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison for leading a security breach of the county’s election system after being inspired by false and baseless claims of voter fraud.

Peters was convicted of giving someone affiliated with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ally of former President Donald Trump, access to election software she used for his county. Screenshots of the software have appeared on right-wing websites.

She was found guilty of most of the election tampering and misconduct charges.

“Your lies are well documented and these convictions are serious,” District Judge Matthews Barrett said. “I have no doubt you would do it again if you could. You are as provocative a defendant as this Court has ever seen.”

“There are a lot of things in my mind that are very clear about this case, you are not a hero,” Barrett added. “You have abused your position, and you are a charlatan who has used and still uses your previous position to sell snake oil that turned out to be undesirable, time and time again.”

Barrett called the damage Peters did in undermining the integrity of the election “immeasurable.”

Before being sentenced, Peters took the stand to ask for probation and told the judge she “never did anything maliciously” and believed she was serving the people of Mesa County.

“I am not a criminal and I do not deserve to go to a prison where other people have committed heinous crimes,” Peters said.

The former Mesa County clerk, who gave a lengthy and emotional speech, told the judge she would be willing to stop talking about elections if she was sentenced to probation.

“I am truly remorseful,” she said.

Peters became a leading figure fueling false and baseless conspiracy theories about voter fraud following the 2020 election. Since then, Peters has hosted a number of election denial events with Lindell.

“I came to Colorado today because you have here in Colorado the key to the entire nation,” Lindell said in 2022, “because you had a great county clerk, Tina Peters, (who) did its job.”

Lindell has not been charged in the case.

At Thursday’s hearing, election denier Douglas Frank, a Lindell associate, said Peters was among many election officials “understandably concerned” about the 2020 election.

“Tina Peters is not a conspirator, Tina Peters is a patriot,” Frank said.

Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said Peters’ actions directly led to death threats against state election officials.

“We have seen long-time employees choose to retire because of the flames that Tina intentionally fanned,” Crane said.

“These people have had their jobs made infinitely more difficult because of what Tina Peters did and her continued efforts to feed the machine that continues to spread lies and misinformation,” Crane said.

“But more importantly, his actions contributed to millions of Americans developing distrust in their elections for no reason,” he added.