{"id":42181,"date":"2022-02-14T19:36:22","date_gmt":"2022-02-15T02:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/clerk-tina-peters-fresh-off-arrest-announces-bid-to-become-colorados-top-election-official\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:05:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:05:46","slug":"clerk-tina-peters-fresh-off-arrest-announces-bid-to-become-colorados-top-election-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/clerk-tina-peters-fresh-off-arrest-announces-bid-to-become-colorados-top-election-official\/","title":{"rendered":"Clerk Tina Peters, fresh off arrest, announces bid to become Colorado\u2019s top election official"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mesa
Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters speaks during the Truth and Justice Rally at the old Mesa County Courthouse on Dec. 1, 2021, in Grand Junction. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Embattled Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was briefly jailed last week on charges of obstructing a peace officer and obstructing government operations, said she is running to become Colorado\u2019s top election official.<\/p>\n

Peters, a Republican, announced her candidacy to become Colorado secretary of state on Monday on a show run and hosted by Steve Bannon, the controversial former adviser to former President Donald Trump. Bannon was indicted in recent months on suspicion of being in contempt of Congress.<\/p>\n

\u201cColorado deserves a secretary of state who will stand up to the Biden administration that wants to run our country into the ground with nationalized elections,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Peters is under grand jury investigation for a security breach of her county\u2019s election system after she allegedly allowed an unauthorized person to attend a sensitive Dominion Voting Systems software update and facilitate the digital copying of her election system.<\/p>\n

Peters, who has spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, has not formally filed to run to be Colorado secretary of state. She was initially running for re-election to a second four-year term as Mesa County\u2019s clerk and recorder.<\/p>\n

She cannot simultaneously run for both positions.<\/p>\n

There are a few other Republicans running this year to be Colorado\u2019s secretary of state, including Pam Anderson, Jefferson County\u2019s former clerk and recorder and the former leader of the Colorado County Clerks Association. Anderson has been critical of Peters and has rejected baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.<\/p>\n

Anderson and Peters are running to unseat Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat.<\/p>\n

\"Tina
Tina Peters\u2019 mug shot. (Mesa County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/span>Mesa County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Peters was barred from having an oversight role in the 2021 election because of the ongoing local, state and federal criminal investigations into her conduct. Griswold is seeking to bar her from having an oversight role in the 2022 election.<\/p>\n

Griswold on Monday called Peters \u201cunfit\u201d to be secretary of state and \u201ca danger to Colorado elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeters compromised voting equipment to try to prove conspiracies, costing Mesa County taxpayers nearly $1 million,\u201d Griswold said. \u201cShe works with election deniers, spreads lies about elections, was removed from overseeing the 2021 Mesa County election, and is under criminal investigation by a grand jury. Colorado needs a secretary of state who will uphold the will of the people; not one who embraces conspiracies and risks Coloradans\u2019 right to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griswold has already been invoking Peters in fundraising emails for her 2022 election, pointing to Peters as the reason why voters should elect to her another term as Colorado\u2019s top election official.<\/p>\n

Peters\u2019 arrest last week came as she was being investigated for allegedly filming a court hearing for her deputy, Belinda Knisley, who is facing felony and misdemeanor charges. The Associated Press reports Peters is accused of resisting police efforts to seize the iPad she allegedly used to record the hearing.<\/p>\n

Peters allegedly tried to kick an officer who was trying to arrest her, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.<\/p>\n

David Winney, a Colorado Springs man who also has questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election, and Mike O\u2019Donnell, a nonprofit executive who lives in Kirk, are also running for the GOP secretary of state nomination. O\u2019Donnell objects to Election Day voter registration and claims that many registered voters aren\u2019t citizens.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s primary will be held June 28.<\/p>\n\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican announces her candidacy on a show by Steve Bannon, the embattled adviser to former President Donald Trump<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[233,266,28,29,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85250,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42181\/revisions\/85250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42181"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}