Tina Peters

Education and career

Peters holds a degree in holistic nutrition from the non-accredited correspondence school Clayton College of Natural Health. She sold alternative medical products in association with a multi-level marketing company named Nikken. Peters also helped manage her former husband's construction company.

Peters, a member of the Republican Party, was elected county clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, in 2018, her first elected office. She had campaigned on a platform calling for improved service from the Clerk and Recorder's motor vehicle offices.

In February 2020, employees in Peters' office discovered an unemptied ballot box in a parking lot in front of the Mesa County election headquarters in Grand Junction, containing 574 ballots cast in the November 2019 election. The ballots had remained there, uncounted, for months, which Peters attributed to "human error". Given the margin of victory in Mesa County elections, this late finding did not change the outcome of any race. This incident and other issues led to a voter recall attempt for Peters from April to August 2020. The recall effort failed by approximately 1,200 signatures to reach the 12,129 required for the question to appear on the ballot in the November 3, 2020, general election.

On November 8, 2021, the Colorado Secretary of State filed a lawsuit against Peters over her fundraising efforts and failure to report contributions and expenses for nearly three years.

On January 13, 2022, Peters formally filed as a candidate for reelection as Mesa County Clerk and Recorder. On February 14, 2022, she dropped her candidacy to run in the Republican primary election for Colorado Secretary of State, which concluded on June 28, 2022. She came in second out of three candidates, and stated that she did not accept the result, suggesting election fraud. News coverage described her as one of several election deniers running for positions of management or influence over future elections. In late July 2022, Peters paid the $256,000 required for the state to conduct a manual recount of votes cast in the primary election. The recount barely changed the totals, with Peters gaining 13 votes, and still having a vote share of 29 percent.

On October 4, 2023, the Colorado Office of Administrative Courts fined Peters $15,400 for violating the Fair Campaign Practice Act by failing to register as a candidate, and failing to file accurate campaign donation and expenditure reports while running for reelection for Mesa County Clerk and Recorder. Though she formally filed on January 13, 2022, the violations occurred between September 2021 and February 2022, before she dropped out of that race on February 14.

Computer breach: 2020 United States presidential election

After elections, Mesa County uses a risk-limiting audit procedure to ensure that the results on paper ballots match the results reported by tabulation machines. The audit process involves a bipartisan group of staff and volunteers to randomly select a number of paper ballots and manually check those results against the results issued by a tabulation machine. On November 19, 2020, Peters signed off on the results of the risk-limiting audit for Mesa County, stating there were no issues or discrepancies with the results of the 2020 election in the county.

Despite signing documents that agreed there were no discrepancies in the election results for the county, Peters met with individuals who promoted the false claim that the 2020 election was illegitimate. In the months following the 2020 election, she allowed an unauthorized person to access the Mesa County's Dominion electronic voting machines and to copy the hard drives of those machines.

In 2024, Peters was convicted in Colorado's 21st judicial district on felony charges relating to this unauthorized access and was sentenced to nine years in prison. She was also ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines. She was immediately taken into custody.

Granting unauthorized access to voting machines

In May 2021, Peters ordered surveillance cameras monitoring the voting machines in the clerk's office turned off, and that they would be reactivated in advance of the next election in August 2021, according to an email sent by Mesa County Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley and later cited in evidence by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. Peters later stated that no law or election rule required security cameras that monitor election equipment to operate continuously; at minimum, they must be on 60 days before an election and 30 days afterward. Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland stated that Peters had not turned off the cameras after any of the eight previous elections that Peters had overseen since 2018.

In the days following her order to turn off the surveillance cameras, Peters allowed Conan Hayes, co-founder of the clothing company RVCA and proponent of QAnon conspiracy theories, to access the room where Mesa County's electronic voting machines were stored and to copy sensitive information from those machines. Days later, Peters allowed Hayes to be present for a software update to the voting machines and to record video of the update taking place. Peters' chief aide, former deputy clerk Belinda Knisley, described Hayes as a "mystery man", and said that Peters told her she brought him in to access files from the voting machines because Peters "was afraid the Colorado Secretary of State's office was going to remove them".

During the time Hayes was present, he used a staff access badge for Gerald Wood, and according to Griswold, Peters misled her staff by saying "Wood" was an employee and had been background-checked. Phone records confirmed that Hayes had traveled to the area during the time of the software update. His hotel room was paid for by Sherronna Bishop, then-campaign manager for Boebert. Peters later said that she, Bishop, Hayes, and United States Representative Lauren Boebert had dinner together on May 24.

Publication of stolen voting machine data

In August 2021, Ron Watkins, conspiracy theorist and site administrator of the imageboard website 8kun, published computer files associated with the Mesa County election system, including "forensic images of Mesa County's voting machines along with video of [a software] update and partially blurred passwords" on a Telegram channel. The Gateway Pundit also published passwords, video, and data associated with the Mesa County election system.

Dominion, the company that made Mesa County's voting machines, identified the leaked passwords as belonging to the machines in Mesa County. The company alerted the state, and Griswold ordered an inspection of the county's voting equipment the following day and prohibited anyone from touching the equipment without her written permission. The order stated: "The posted images depict the BIOS passwords specific to the individual hardware stations of Mesa County's voting system. These passwords can only be used physically at a voting system at the Mesa County Clerk's Office." Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein assigned an investigator to look into the security breach. On August 10, Colorado Department of State staff accessed the county election equipment and some records at the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder's office. They found security vulnerabilities in the servers and boot settings. Peters described the search as a "raid" and, saying that her chief deputy had not been allowed to be present, said: "I don't know what they did, but I can tell you I don't trust them."

A day after state officials investigated the voting machines in Mesa County, Peters attended a 2020 election conspiracy conference held by Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow and conspiracy theorist. During the conference, Ron Watkins presented via livestream the computer files associated with the Mesa County election system he had shared on Telegram previously. He claimed "the files were from hard drives taken 'without authorization' from Peters' office", which he said his lawyer instructed him to disclose.

At the conference, Peters denied the files had come from her office, and if they had, questioned if the leak of data was a problem. She claimed:If those passwords were compromised, why can't they just change them? How many of you have had to change your email password before? Is that a big deal? You just change it. We're not in the middle of an election right now... It's not like some secret people came and did something nefarious.

Decertification of compromised voting machines

On August 12, 2021, Griswold issued Election Order 2021-02 (EO-02), which announced the decertification of the county's voting equipment, which would have to be replaced before the November election unless Mesa County chose to conduct a hand count of ballots. Additionally, Griswold announced that Peters could no longer oversee the 2021 election.

On August 17, 2021, the FBI investigated the alleged Mesa County election equipment breach alongside the Colorado Department of State's and County Treasurer's offices. Peters was not present when officials went to meet her and inspect the equipment. Griswold issued a third Election Order, 2021-03 (EO-03), stating that Peters was in hiding and not complying, and as such, Mesa County Treasurer and former Clerk and Recorder Sheila Reiner was permitted to take control of the Mesa County elections as Election Supervisor. Griswold appointed her Republican predecessor, former Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, as the Designated Election Official. The U.S. Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) looked into the alleged breach and determined that the incident did not risk the integrity of elections in either the state or the country, according to the secretary of state's office. On August 19, 2021, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell told Vice News in an interview that Peters was "holed up" in a safe house provided by him for her protection. A member of Lindell's own security team leaked the location, so she was moved to another unknown location. On August 21, 2021, a support rally was held for Peters in Mesa County; her supporters claimed there had been a security breach.

On August 24, 2021, the all-Republican Mesa County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to replace 41 compromised pieces of election equipment with new equipment also from Dominion Voting Systems. Thirty-four county residents spoke to the commission before the vote, all opposing the Dominion contract. The commissioners extended the service agreement for eight years (to 2029) and purchased a "Dominion Ballot Audit Review" for $3,300 per election, for a total cost of $825,281. The agreement with Dominion included a promise that the company would not file a civil lawsuit against the county over defamatory remarks allegedly made by Peters.

Removal from overseeing 2021 election

On August 30, Griswold filed a lawsuit to prevent Peters from overseeing the 2021 election, because the authority to terminate Peters lay with the courts and not with her. The county commissioners voted to reject Reiner, the clerk serving the county prior to Peters having been elected to the position, and instead appointed Williams, the former Colorado Secretary of State, to oversee Mesa County elections.

On August 23, 2021, Mesa County Human Resources Director Brenda Moore suspended Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley with pay due to accusations of unprofessional behavior and hostile work environment. Mesa County Elections Manager Sandra Brown was also suspended. On August 25, Knisley entered the Clerk and Recorder's office, from which she had been barred, and tried to use Peters' credentials to print documents. She surrendered on September 1 to be charged with felony burglary and misdemeanor cybercrimes, and was released on a personal recognizance bond.

On September 17, 2021, Peters gave the county commissioners an 83-page report titled "Forensic Examination and Analysis" prepared by cyber forensic expert Doug Gould. The report included images of server hard drives and attempted to show that some files were deleted or replaced with other files; according to the report, the "trusted build" deleted a total of 28,989 log files but did not state the purpose of the files or whether they were supposed to be replaced with new files as part of a software upgrade. It concluded: "Further investigation is required to determine the full scope of non-compliance with legal mandates for voting systems and election records, and whether the non-compliance is deliberate or simply negligent." Griswold's office responded, "Prior to the routine upgrade to voting equipment called the 'trusted build', counties are directed to save to external media all data necessary to completely audit and verify a prior election. This data may be restored to the EMS after the trusted build. No court has ever held that voting system event logs are election records within the meaning of 52 U.S.C. § 20701."

On September 18, in response to a court filing to remove her from overseeing the next election, Peters stated that there had been an unauthorized person and non-employee present at the annual system upgrade but that Peters had been within her legal right to allow that person to be present. On October 13, 2021, Mesa County District Court Judge Valerie Robinson ruled that Peters and Knisley had allowed a breach in the county's election system during a major software update and, therefore, were barred from supervising the November election. Peters said she would appeal, but on October 21, the Colorado Supreme Court declined to take up her appeal.

Indictment, trial and conviction

Peters was indicted on March 9, 2022, on 13 counts: three counts of attempting to influence a public servant (class 4 felonies), two counts of conspiracy to commit attempting to influence a public servant (class 5 felonies), first-degree official misconduct (a class 2 misdemeanor), violation of duty (a misdemeanor), failing to comply with the secretary of state (a misdemeanor), obstruction, contempt of court, criminal impersonation, and identity theft of Gerald Wood. She was reported to have "sought to prove that widespread fraud had occurred in the state's 2020 presidential election", Knisley was indicted alongside Peters, on six counts: attempt to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, violation of duty, and failure to comply with the requirements of the Secretary of State.

Despite having acknowledged in earlier court appearances that a non-employee had been present, she claimed that Gerald Wood had perjured himself on the stand when he denied being at the unauthorized breach. Conan Hayes admitted to using Wood's badge, and Patrick M. Byrne told The New York Times that Hayes was on his payroll and had used FaceTime with him from inside Mesa County election offices saying a government official invited him to make backup copies of machines. Byrne told the Times he could see Hayes was wearing "someone else's" identification badge. Peters was barred from supervising local elections in 2022 as well.

Three ethics complaints have also been filed against Peters. On August 16, 2021, she was alleged to have accepted plane rides and other gifts from Mike Lindell in excess of the state gift limit of $65. In April 2022, at an appearance with Peters, Lindell disclosed having personally donated an amount in the $200,000 to $800,000 range to her legal defense fund and campaign. As this was also in apparent violation of the $65 state limit, the Colorado ethics commission approved a second ethics complaint that had been made in January 2022 and investigated Peters' elections fund. Peters denied prior knowledge, despite previously directing supporters to Lindell's legal defense fund. On May 17, 2022, the commission found a third ethics complaint filed on May 9 non-frivolous. This complaint was based on Lindell's comments at an "Election Truth Rally" and alleged that Peters knew of these payments, as evidenced by recorded comments she made at the rally.

In July 2022, a warrant was issued for Peters' arrest after she traveled out of state without the required court permission to appear at another Lindell event in Las Vegas. Peters claimed not to know of the restriction, her three attorneys claimed not to have told her, and the arrest order was canceled; but later the same month, a second warrant for her arrest was issued because she emailed multiple county clerk's offices informing them that she was seeking a recount with hand counting, violating the bond conditions of her arrest for election machine tampering. Peters turned herself in, was arrested, was allowed to repost bond, and was again released. County Elections Manager Sandra Brown also turned herself in for arrest on July 11, 2022, on an affidavit naming her in a conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and attempt to influence a public servant. She was released from custody after posting a personal recognizance bond.

Conviction and sentencing

Peters was convicted in August 2024 on seven of ten charges of engaging in a security breach to advance a false conspiracy theory of election fraud. Four of the convictions were for felonies. On the day after her conviction, she appeared on the Steve Bannon War Room podcast to insist she would continue to pursue her allegations, referring to a debunked theory originating from former Michigan politician Patrick Colbeck and amplified on Twitter by Rasmussen Reports alleging Dominion engineers based in Serbia could change votes over the internet.

Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison and immediately taken into custody in October 2024. At her sentencing, District Court Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters, "Your lies are well documented [...] I'm convinced you'd do it all over again if you could. [...] You are no hero. You're a charlatan who used, and is still using, your prior position in office to peddle a snake oil that's been proven to be junk time and time again." In response, Peters denied breaking the law "with malice". Subsequent to the sentencing the courthouse increased security after receiving threats to the judge and staff.

On February 7, 2025 Peters filed a federal habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court of Colorado, arguing that she should be released on bond pending the appeal decision. Peters asked the court to appear at the hearing remotely from jail in Pueblo, but the judge denied the request. Her petition for release pending appeal was denied by Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak on December 8, 2025.

In May 2025, President Donald Trump directed the U.S. Department of Justice to take actions to secure Peters' release. In August 2025, Trump issued a social media statement warning that "harsh measures" would be imposed on Colorado if Peters was not released. On November 12, the Colorado Department of Corrections received a letter from the Federal Bureau of Prisons asking to move Peters to federal custody, a request denied by state prison officials and Colorado Governor Jared Polis. On December 11, Trump said he had pardoned Peters, despite having no jurisdiction over convictions under state law. Colorado officials rejected the pardon for lack of jurisdiction. On December 23, Peters asked the state appeals court to recognize the federal pardon. On December 31, Trump posted to social media that the governor was a "Scumbag" and the district attorney was "disgusting". He said: "I wish them only the worst. May they rot in Hell."

Commutation and release

On May 15, 2026, despite the ongoing resentencing process, Governor Jared Polis granted Peters' application for commutation granting her release on June 1, 2026, subject to conditions to be set by the Parole Board of Colorado. After the announcement, U.S. President Donald Trump posted "FREE TINA" on Truth Social, while Republican Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, who obtained the conviction of Peters, condemned the decision, stating that "the Governor chose to substitute his judgment for the courts, the sentencing judge, and the Mesa County community that bore the consequences of Ms. Peters' actions. It is especially troubling that notoriety, political pressure and powerful allies appear to have produced special treatment that ordinary defendants would never receive." Polis's decision was likewise condemned by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, who described the commutation as "mind-boggling and wrong as a matter of basic justice", as well as Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, who stated that Polis's actions "will validate and embolden the election denial movement, and leave a dark, dangerous imprint on American democracy for years to come". Moreover, all 66 Democrats in the Colorado General Assembly had signed a letter urging Polis not to grant clemency to Peters in March 2026, two months prior to the announcement. On May 20, the Colorado Democratic Party censured Polis at a state committee meeting. Peters was released from prison on June 1, 2026, having served less than a quarter of her nine-year sentence. Following her release, Peters claimed without evidence that Democrats would cheat in the 2026 United States elections.

Personal life

Prior to being taken into custody in October 2024, Peters lived in Grand Junction, Colorado. She and her husband, Thomas Peters, had a daughter and a son. Their son, Remington Jordan Peters, a combat veteran serving as a United States Navy SEAL, died on May 29, 2017, at age 27 in a parachute accident performing at an air show in New York City.

She legally separated from her husband in June 2017 and filed a decree of legal separation in January 2018. At the time, she had power of attorney over her husband's affairs for health reasons. The couple officially divorced in November 2021. On October 2, 2021, Tina Peters filed a quitclaim deed for a home that Thomas Peters had purchased separately eight months after the couple separated. A civil complaint filed by Thomas Peters, which later included his sister, Katherine Egan, alleged that Tina Peters filed the quitclaim deed "through deceit and deception". Thomas Peters' daughter Cayce joined Egan as a plaintiff in a civil suit against Tina Peters on behalf of the estate of her father as his personal representative, alleging the quitclaim deed was filed, placing the house in her own name, on the same day her power of attorney over Thomas Peters was rescinded. Thomas Peters died on December 31, 2023.