There’s no shortage of local election officials who bought into Donald Trump’s lies about his 2020 election defeat, but by any fair measure, Tina Peters is a special case. Indeed, as NBC News reported, the Colorado Republican is now headed to prison.
A former Colorado county clerk who promoted 2020 election conspiracy theories was sentenced Thursday to 9 years behind bars for charges including official misconduct in connection with a security breach of Mesa County’s voting system. Tina Peters was convicted of four felony and three misdemeanor charges in August for using another person’s security badge to allow someone associated with MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, a prominent election denier and ally of former President Donald Trump, access to county election equipment.
As a local prosecutor explained, Peters was “a fox guarding the henhouse,” adding, “It was her job to protect the election equipment, and she turned on it and used her power for her own advantage.”
It’s been more than two years since the GOP conspiracy theorist was first indicted after she used her office to help leak election machinery data in pursuit of a conspiratorial plot that apparently never existed in reality.
As part of her efforts, Peters was celebrated by the likes of Steve Bannon — he argued that she was targeted because of her fight against “this globalist apparatus” — though a Colorado jury came to a different conclusion, convicting the election denier in early August, finding her guilty of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.
Ahead of sentencing, Peters showed no remorse.
As the notorious election denier begins her sentence, there are a couple of broader angles to this that are worth keeping in mind. The first is the election season message this sends to other right-wing conspiracy theorists elsewhere.
“Today’s verdict is a warning to others that they will face serious consequences if they attempt to illegally tamper with our voting processes or election systems,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement after Peters’ conviction. It’s not exactly a secret that there are plenty of conspiratorial election officials considering provocative and legally dubious steps this fall. Whether the developments in Colorado get their attention remains to be seen. But I’m also struck by the broader partisan circumstances: Trump lied, and Peters took those lies seriously. Nearly four years later, she’s headed to a prison cell, while there’s a decent chance that he’s headed back to the Oval Office. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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