Former Colorado employee Tina Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison for election fraud

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

District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County official Tina Peters — after previously arguing with her over her continuing to make discredited claims about rigged voting machines — that she never took her job seriously.

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

The jury found Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to gain access to the Mesa County voting system and for deceiving about that person's identity.

The man was linked to My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were tampered with stealing that Choice from former President Donald Trump. The discredited claims date back to Trump himself, whose supporters attacked the US Capitol because of them and who still suggests that in his third presidential bid.

At trial, prosecutors said Peters, a Republican, was seeking fame and was “fixated” on election issues after becoming involved with those who questioned the accuracy of the presidential election results.

Peters was once a hero of election denialists and has made no apologies for what happened.

Before her sentencing, Peters insisted that everything she did to expose what she believed was a fraud was for the greater good.

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

But when Peters continued to make claims about “wireless devices” and fraudulent software in voting machines that had not been confirmed by any legal authority, she drew the judge's exasperation. The recount of the ballot papers did not reveal any discrepancies, he emphasized.

“I’ve let you talk about it enough,” Judge Barrett said. “The voices are the voices.”

The judge later found that Peters continued to make public appearances on radio shows to sympathetic audiences for her own benefit.

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

Peters had the right to be defiant, he noted, but it was “certainly not helpful to her fate today.”

The breach cited by Peters heightened concerns that fraudulent election officials sympathetic to partisan lies could use their access and knowledge to attack election processes from within.

In Mesa County — a picturesque, mostly rural area on Colorado's Western Slope known for its peaches, vineyards and mountain biking, as well as oil and gas drilling — Peters' actions cost the local government $1.4 million in legal fees and lost work time the employee costs. County Commissioner Cody Davis gave his due in sentencing.

Peters' notoriety also caused “unseen costs” to the area, Davis told the court.

“We are very proud of this community, but our reputation has suffered,” Davis said. “Your behavior has made this county a national laughing stock.”

Peters was convicted of three counts of attempting to influence a public official, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, dereliction of duty and failure to obey the Secretary of State.

She was found not guilty of identity theft, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and one count of criminal impersonation. Still, she persisted on social media in accusing the Colorado-based company Dominion Voting Systems, which ran her county's election system, and others of vote theft.

Colorado will not allow anyone to threaten its elections, Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement responding to Peters' conviction.

“Colorado elections are the country’s gold standard. “I’m proud of how we responded to the first insider election breach in the country and look forward to another safe and successful election in November,” said Griswold.

Attorney General Phil Weiser called the verdict “fair and just” in a statement.