Clerk who espoused election fraud conspiracies announces bid to be top state elections official
An embattled Colorado county clerk who was prohibited from overseeing the 2021 general election announced on Monday that she is running to be the state's top elections official.
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a Republican, has been a proponent of unfounded claims of widespread election fraud and has been investigated for an alleged security breach involving voting equipment in her office.
"Colorado 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," Peters said on former Trump strategist Steve Bannon's podcast Monday.
Peters has not yet responded to a request for an interview.
President Joe Biden won Colorado by 13.5 points during the 2020 election.
A Colorado judge ruled in October that Peters was "untruthful" with the secretary of state's office when she allowed someone who was not a county employee to have access to a secure area and make copies of a hard drive before a software update. After that update, confidential passwords were made public on a social media website.
Peters said in a statement to The Washington Post after that ruling that the lawsuit was a "power grab" that was meant to be a "warning to all other potential whistleblowers."
Last month, Colorado's Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold filed a lawsuit seeking to bar Peters from overseeing the 2022 elections after Peters failed to certify that she'd comply with election security protocols.
"They are coming after me because I am standing in their way: of truth, transparency and elections held closest to the people," Peters told Bannon.
Peters was arrested last week after police were investigating an alleged illegal recording of a court hearing on her iPad. She told Bannon that she still has bruises on her arm "where they mishandled me."
"Tina Peters is unfit to be Secretary of State and a danger to Colorado elections," Griswold said in a statement. "She 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."
Peters spoke last year at an event organized by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has promoted unfounded election conspiracy theories. Peters left the state for a period of time in August, according to The Denver Post.
There are several candidates in other states - including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada - running for secretary of state who have also questioned whether President Biden won the 2020 election.
Three other Republicans are also running for the chance to take on Griswold in the general election. The candidates will square off in the state's primary on June 28.
Secretary-of-state races are receiving extra attention ahead of the 2022 midterms. According to the Brennan Center, contributions to candidates for secretary of state in battleground states are three times higher than they were at this point of the 2018 cycle and about eight times higher than in 2014.
