Tina Peters, the embattled clerk and recorder for Mesa County and a Republican candidate for Secretary of State, showed up at the state Capitol Monday to denounce a bill that targets security breaches, such as the one she’s accused of.

Peters is accused of facilitating breaches in election system security in Mesa County, ignoring election rules and defying orders from Secretary of State Jena Griswold. She also faces ethics and campaign finance complaints involving gifts she’s allegedly accepted above legal limits. A hearing on a campaign finance complaint, tied to a legal defense fund raising money on Peters’ behalf, went through a two-day trial in the Office of Administrative Courts last week.

Peters’ alleged election security breaches became the impetus for Senate Bill 153, dubbed the Colorado Election Security Act, according to the bill’s supporters.

The bill seeks to increase security measures, such as requiring 24/7 surveillance and key card access to rooms where election equipment is stored. In any county of more than 100,000, the bill would prohibit any elected official or candidate from having key card access to a room with voting equipment or devices without being accompanied by someone else with authorized access. For smaller counties, the bill sets up a $500,000 grant to pay for the round-the-clock surveillance or key card access. The bill would also bar a designated election official from “knowingly or recklessly” spreading “misinformation” or “disinformation” regarding election administration. The bill does not define misinformation or disinformation – or specifies who gets to determine if a claim is false. 

Peters held the press conference on the west steps of the state Capitol, an event apparently not announced to many media outlets beforehand.

In a news release, she called SB 153 “a coronation of  Jena Griswold as elections czar.” She claimed it violates six federal election laws, the First Amendment, and five or more Colorado state statutes governing election laws. 

Peters, who has maintained her innocence from the official charges and dismissed them as part of a politically motivated attempt by officials from both parties to muzzle supporters of former President Donald Trump, also asked Coloradans to contact their lawmakers, urging a “no” vote on SB 153.

She also attacked her Republican primary opponent, Pam Anderson, the former Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder, as being a tool of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and asked voters for their support in the June 28 primary. 

In that same news release issued by her campaign, Peters called Senate Bill 153 a “blatant power grab by … Griswold.”

“SB22-153 is clearly a kneejerk response to our elections investigations in Mesa County and to the multiple damning reports that investigation has produced,” she said, citing two reports and a third one that is slated to be issued Tuesday. The first two were debunked by election officials, according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. 

The second investigation report, as reported on March 5, was conducted by a person on a cyber investigation team hired by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. The report claimed the county’s 2021 Dominion Voting System election server, which has since been decertified, had 36 wireless devices that would allow computer connections anywhere in the world.

The report did not contain any evidence “that those devices were activated, or if the machines also had the necessary hardware to allow for remote access, such as modems or Wi-Fi capabilities.”

The first report, released last September, said 29,000 election files were destroyed during a “trusted build,” which is an update to voting systems. The Daily Sentinel, citing state and local election officials, reported that the files were just computer logs that had nothing to do with elections.

Peters was indicated by a Mesa County grand jury on March 9 on several felony and misdemeanor charges, including attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, identity theft, official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state. Peters maintains that she hasn’t broken any laws and instead has been trying to unearth evidence of voter fraud, though computer experts say her claims are largely based on misunderstandings about how computer systems and elections work.

In a statement issued by her campaign in response to the indictment, Peters blasted Griswold and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, a Republican she derided as a “self-described never-Trumper,” saying the two “have been united in their opposition to conservative activists within the Republican Party who continue to demand more transparency in Colorado’s elections process.” 

The bill was approved by a Senate committee last week and by the Senate Appropriations Committee on March 18, and it is now awaiting debate in the full Senate.

Tina Peters, the embattled clerk and recorder for Mesa County and a Republican candidate for Secretary of State, showed up at the state Capitol Monday to denounce a bill that targets security breaches, such as the one she’s accused of. (Video provided by 9NEWS)