{"id":40984,"date":"2022-04-25T13:09:21","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T19:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/testimony-concludes-in-case-seeking-to-prevent-tina-peters-from-overseeing-elections\/"},"modified":"2022-04-25T19:09:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T19:09:21","slug":"testimony-concludes-in-case-seeking-to-prevent-tina-peters-from-overseeing-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/testimony-concludes-in-case-seeking-to-prevent-tina-peters-from-overseeing-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"Testimony concludes in case seeking to prevent Tina Peters from overseeing elections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mesa
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters addresses a crowd gathered on the steps of the state Capitol on April 5 for an event called the \u201cColorado Election Truth Rally,\u201d organized by activists who question the results of the 2020 presidential election. (Kevin Mohatt for Colorado Newsline)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

District Judge Valerie Robison will soon decide whether embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters can oversee this year\u2019s elections, as testimony in a case seeking to block Peters as the county\u2019s election official wrapped up this week.<\/p>\n

Democratic Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold outlined conditions in January<\/a> for Peters, a Republican, to act as Mesa County\u2019s designated election official this year. When Peters refused to abide by those rules, Griswold\u2019s office asked the court<\/a> to issue an order barring Peters from overseeing the 2022 primary and general elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cClerk Peters must follow the secretary of state. The idea that it\u2019s a two-way street and clerks can run elections how they want hasn\u2019t been the case since 1963,\u201d Assistant Attorney General LeeAnn Morrill said during testimony. \u201cI would suggest to the court that both history and the law have a term for public officials who swear by an oath and don\u2019t abide by it. That term is faithless.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar lawsuit last year successfully blocked<\/a> Peters from participating in the 2021 coordinated general election.<\/p>\n

Peters is in a web of legal troubles after her alleged facilitation of a security breach into the county\u2019s election system during a 2021 software update. She allowed images <\/a>to be made of election machine software and secure passwords to be leaked online, which led to the decommissioning of the county\u2019s election machines. She faces a grand jury indictment<\/a> of multiple felony and misdemeanor charges related to that conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeking injunctive relief here. Injunction means equity, and equity means public interest,\u201d Morrill said in closing arguments Thursday. \u201cThe public interest is: In the role of DEO, who is best positioned to best serve the voters of Mesa County in conducting the 2022 elections?\u201d<\/p>\n

The state argues that person is Brandi Bantz, an elections official who also has the support of the Mesa County commissioners.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the state are asking Robison to bar Peters, Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley and Second Chief Deputy Clerk Julie Fisher from acting as the county\u2019s main election official. On Thursday, Fisher testified that she gave Knisley access to secure areas of the office after Knisley was placed on administrative leave in August. Peters named Fisher as a second deputy in December. Attorneys for the state argued that Fisher does not have enough relevant experience to successfully run an election and engaged in misconduct for helping Knisley.<\/p>\n

The attorney for Peters, Scott Gessler, a former Republican Colorado secretary of state, argued that the current case is a repeat of last year\u2019s lawsuit ahead of the 2021 election and questioned whether similar litigation will be brought up every year in a never-ending cycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should not be a case where the cake is baked already in advance. In other words, the secretary and the county litigated this stuff in 2021,\u201d he said. \u201cThey said there were all kinds of problems, and the court agreed with their request for relief with the declaration that Peters was untruthful. The secretary invites the court to simply rinse, wash and repeat. Is there no end to this court\u2019s jurisdiction over the actions of 2021?\u201d<\/p>\n

Morrill, however, argued that Peters\u2019 refusal to sign the secretary\u2019s order in January created new facts in the case. She said the state did not ask the court last year to bar Peters from this year\u2019s elections because it gave Peters an opportunity to change her behavior.<\/p>\n

Question of free speech<\/div>\n

One of Griswold\u2019s conditions for Peters to run this year\u2019s elections was for Peters to repudiate comments she made about the county\u2019s Dominion Voting Systems election machines. In a Facebook Live broadcast<\/a> from January, Peters said \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get those machines so \u2026 they\u2019re not able to do what they\u2019re designed to do.\u201d Griswold asserted those statements proved a willingness to compromise equipment.<\/p>\n

Gessler said those statements, however, amounted to free speech and were no more than public criticism. He said that none of her statements show her intention to break the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s entitled to criticize election procedures if she thinks they are wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cI understand people may dislike that and there\u2019s certainly a lot of polarization in this country about that issue \u2026 and this case is squarely in the middle of that. But she still has that right, not only as an elected official but as a private individual under her First Amendment rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

In rebuttal, Morrill said Peters\u2019 elected position limits her speech rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cClerk Peters does not stand before you today in this proceeding as a private citizen, as an individual resident of Mesa County. She is named in her official capacity. As a result of that, it\u2019s exactly right that the secretary of state is putting words in (her) mouth and making her repudiate certain public statements made to date,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She noted that the so-called government speech doctrine asserts that the government has its own rights as a speaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very clear that the state can put words in its political subdivisions\u2019 mouth or it can take them out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the two days of testimony, the court heard from witnesses including Fisher, Mesa County Commissioner Scott McInnis, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Beall and former Secretary of State Wayne Williams. Peters did not herself testify.<\/p>\n

Robison said she will issue a decision by mid-May. Primary elections are June 28, and county election workers have already begun preparing for them.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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