MCKENZIE LANGE/The Daily Sentinel
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters speaks at the old Mesa County Courthouse on Dec. 1, 2021.
This screenshot, taken from surveillance video from the Mesa County Elections Office, was included with several others in a report from the 21st Judicial District Attorney's Office. The images show the moments when former Elections Manager Sandra Brown began a new adjudication session after a tabulation error and replaced an elections equipment computer. The move was described as "human error" that showed the creation of new databases in election counting, but did not change the results.
For a second time in as many weeks, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters is asking for a recount of her primary election loss last month, but this time she claims to have the money to pay for it.
Peters, who is facing felony and misdemeanor indictments for tampering with election equipment and misconduct in office, no longer is basing her recount request on winning the Colorado Republican Party State Assembly that placed her on the ballot for secretary of state, or some GOP polls that allegedly showed her leading her opponents, Mike O’Donnell and Pam Anderson, who ultimately won the nomination.
Instead, she’s focusing her request entirely on an advisory issued by the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warning of potential vulnerabilities in certain Dominion Voting System software, which state election officials say isn’t used in Colorado.
“In your letter dated July 19, 2022, you asserted that the version of Dominion Democracy Suite voting systems referenced in CISA’s June 3, 2022, advisory is not used in Colorado,” Peters wrote in her recount request to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office late Monday, a day before the deadline to do so.
“Contrary to your statement, J. Alex Halderman, professor of computer science at the University of Michigan, whose forensic examination of these voting systems gave rise to CISA’s advisory, specifically stated at paragraph 5 of his sworn declaration that Colorado is among 16 states that utilize Dominion ICX machines in which the same vulnerabilities he described may exist,” Peters added. “According to CISA, these vulnerabilities could allow malware to infect other components within the Dominion voting system.”
State election officials have repeatedly said that Colorado does not use the same version of Dominion software that Halderman tested, which he did as a paid consultant on behalf of plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging election irregularities in the Georgia 2020 presidential election.
But Halderman, who shared a copy of his findings with the CISA, said that he found only possible vulnerabilities, and not any evidence that anyone took advantage of them.
Still, Peters has claimed that her so-called Report #3, which was based on a computer hard drive of now-decertified election equipment over which she is faces criminal charges for tampering, also shows the same vulnerabilities.
That report, however, focused on an error that a Mesa County District Attorney’s investigation revealed was actually caused by her own then elections manager, Sandra Brown, who has since been charged in relation to the criminal case against Peters and her chief deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley.
This screenshot, taken from surveillance video from the Mesa County Elections Office, was included with several others in a report from the 21st Judicial District Attorney's Office. The images show the moments when former Elections Manager Sandra Brown began a new adjudication session after a tabulation error and replaced an elections equipment computer. The move was described as "human error" that showed the creation of new databases in election counting, but did not change the results.
Knisley had been set to enter a plea on similar charges against her on Friday, but that court hearing has since been postponed until October. After first being squarely behind Peters in her still unproven accusations of election fraud, court records show that she now is providing evidence against Peters, hinting that she might get a plea deal that could lead to Knisley testifying against Peters.
According to an affidavit in support of Brown’s arrest earlier this month, Knisley told prosecutors that Peters “told her to lie” about the true identity of the person who helped her make copies of her election computer hard drives.
Brown’s first court hearing on the felony charges against her, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and attempt to influence a public servant, is on Friday.
Unless she cooperates and gets a plea deal, Brown faces a maximum punishment of up to eight years in prison.
On Tuesday, Peters told Steven Bannon, a former adviser to President Donald Trump who recently was convicted for violating a congressional subpoena over the Jan. 6, 2011, Capitol insurrection hearings, that people are out to get her.
“We need to file ethics violations against these judges, against these people that are attacking me,” Peters told Bannon on his podcast Tuesday. “(Colorado Gov.) Jared Polis appointed the judge, the hanging judge, that’s wanting to put me in prison. His name is William Barrett, William B. Barrett.”
Actually, her judge’s name is Matthew D. Barrett.
And while Barrett was appointed to the bench by Polis, a Democrat, it was Chief Judge Brian Flynn who first made Barrett a magistrate judge a year before he was appointed to that post in 2019. Flynn was appointed to the bench in 2005 by then Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican.
Peters is set to appear before Barrett in her arraignment on Aug. 5.
Peters also told Bannon that she’s received about $190,000 in individual donations to help pay for the recount, which state officials previously said would cost about $236,297.
MCKENZIE LANGE/The Daily Sentinel
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters speaks at the old Mesa County Courthouse on Dec. 1, 2021.
The Secretary of State’s Office said late Wednesday that it now would cost Peters $255,915 to conduct the new recount, saying that she has by the end of today to pay it. If she pays that amount before the deadline expires, state law requires the recount to be done by next Thursday, the office said.
“It is worth noting that the reason for increased costs per recount since requests were made previously this month is that now counties would potentially be starting a recount on Friday and must complete the work by next Tuesday, August 4th, as required by statute,” the office said in an email. “This may require work to be done over the weekend in addition to bringing in additional support to process a large number of ballots in a shorter amount of time.”
The office, however, said that election regulations don’t allow for the hand-count of ballots as she’s requesting. Instead, the same tabulation machines used to count the June primary are to be used. The office said that rule was put in place by former Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a Republican who now is one of Peters’ attorneys.
That election put Peters at a distant second place to Anderson, who won more than 43% of the vote. Peters came in with 28.86%, just 0.78% more than the third-place candidate in the race, O’Donnell.
Peters only won seven of the state’s 64 counties, some of which were by a few percentage points.
State Rep. Ron Hanks also filed a second request to have his primary loss recounted. Like Peters, his first request fell by the wayside because he, too, didn’t pay for its cost, as is required by law.
Both also are asking for copies of all cast vote records, ballot drop box records, video surveillance of all polling places and drop boxes, signature verification records, records and reports on all voter registrations and voting history, all ballot envelopes, and all electronic voting system logs.
Adding all that to the recount request increases its overall cost.
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