'I've Done Nothing Wrong' Says Tina Peters After Agents Raid The Mesa County Clerk's Home
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (CBS4) - Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters is speaking out after federal agents as well as investigators from the attorney general and district attorney's offices raided her home Tuesday. It was part of an investigation into an alleged election security breach involving voting equipment from her office.
"I was sleeping, you know I'm a 60-year-old woman living by myself. I was terrified," Peters told CBS4's Rick Sallinger.
The Mesa County Clerk says FBI agents and the others came to her home at 6 a.m.
"Essentially soldiers in combat showed up to attack my home, not men in suits and ties," she said.
Search warrants were served after voting system information turned up on public websites as revealed earlier this year by the Secretary of State Jena Griswold.
In August Peters told a news conference, "The Mesa County Clerk and Recorder's office directed her staff to turn off the video surveillance of the voting equipment."
Peters acknowledged that she made copies of files on the machines for security before an update of the system was conducted.
"I was concerned they were going to delete important election files, I did a backup image before and after they did that."
She claims the images shows numerous Mesa County voter files were removed during that update and it was her job to supervise those files.
CBS4 asked Peters, "Do you feel you are going to be charged with a crime?"
"Well I've done nothing wrong," she said.
The secretary of state's office says there was nothing in a report from Peters that showed any records were destroyed. The attorney general emphasized there was no use of force at her home.