{"id":44135,"date":"2021-10-21T21:56:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T03:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-supreme-court-declines-to-hear-county-clerks-appeal-of-ruling-barring-her-from-2021-election\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:17:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:17:49","slug":"colorado-supreme-court-declines-to-hear-county-clerks-appeal-of-ruling-barring-her-from-2021-elec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-supreme-court-declines-to-hear-county-clerks-appeal-of-ruling-barring-her-from-2021-elec\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Supreme Court declines to hear county clerk\u2019s appeal of ruling barring her from 2021 election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mesa
Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters was elected to the position in 2018. (Gretel Daugherty, Special to the Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Colorado Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters\u2019 appeal of a ruling last week barring her from having a role in the upcoming 2021 election.<\/p>\n

Peters\u2019 appeal argued that Mesa County District Court Judge Valerie J. Robison didn\u2019t have the authority to remove her as the county\u2019s designated election official and, thus, prevent her from having a role in the Nov. 2 contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cColorado law unambiguously mandates that a county clerk and recorder fulfill the duties as the county DEO, and a court may not override this statutory mandate,\u201d the appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, filed Monday, argued.<\/p>\n

Scott Gessler, an attorney for Peters, warned that \u201cif allowed to stand, the district court ruling will fundamentally alter election administration and application of Colorado\u2019s election laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Colorado Supreme Court declined to accept jurisdiction in the case.<\/p>\n

Peters, a Republican, could potentially take her appeal to federal court, but with the Nov. 2 election fast approaching it\u2019s unclear if there is enough time for her to get a judge to intervene before Election Day.<\/p>\n

Robison\u2019s ruling came after Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Peters from having a role in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Supreme Court\u2019s decision, Clerk Peters remains barred from any involvement in this election,\u201d Griswold said in a written statement Thursday. \u201cAs secretary of state, I will always work to provide accessible and secure elections for all eligible Coloradans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peters, who has spread baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, has been under fire since she allegedly allowed an unauthorized person to attend a sensitive Dominion Voting Systems software update in May. Photos of passwords taken during the update were then posted online.<\/p>\n

Local, state and federal authorities have launched a criminal investigation into the breach.<\/p>\n

Peters is also facing scrutiny after a copy of an election system hard drive from her office was posted on the internet.<\/p>\n

Amid the probes, Peters attended a conference in South Dakota held by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ally of former President Donald Trump who has made baseless claims about last year\u2019s presidential election being stolen. She told Lindell that she is being persecuted, but provided no proof.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Supreme Court\u2019s decision not to hear the appeal means former Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, a Republican, will serve as Mesa County\u2019s designated election official for the Nov. 2 contest. County Treasurer Sheila Reiner, who is also a Republican, will serve as the elections director.<\/p>\n

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

judge lacked authority to remove her as designated election official<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,28,1722],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-headlines","tag-regional-elections"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44135","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=44135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85985,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44135\/revisions\/85985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44135"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}