Colorado clerk who became hero to election conspiracists set to go on trial for voting system breach

DENVER (AP) — A trial is set to begin Wednesday for former Colorado county clerk Tina Peters, a hero to election conspiracy theorists who is accused of orchestrating a breach of election security equipment.

The case against Peters centers around accusations that in May 2021 she allowed a man using someone else’s security badge to make a copy of the Dominion Voting Systems computer’s hard drive while she and an aide watched after turning off surveillance video.

Colorado state election officials became aware of the Mesa County security breach a few months later when a photo and video of confidential voting system passwords were posted on social media and a conservative website after Peters joined Lindell onstage at a “cybersymposium” and promised to reveal proof of election rigging.

Peters, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, argued she had a duty to preserve the results of the election before the voting system was upgraded and that she should not be prosecuted for carrying out her job.

The hard drive copied included proprietary software developed by Dominion Voting Systems that is used by election offices around the country. The Colorado-based company has been the subject of conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Trump’s loss. It filed several defamation lawsuits as a result, settling a case against Fox News for $787 million last year.

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Experts have described the unauthorized release as serious, saying it provided a potential “practice environment” that would allow anyone to probe for vulnerabilities that could be exploited during a future election.

The incident is one of a handful of suspected security breaches that occurred in the aftermath of the 2020 election amid false claims by Trump that voting systems were rigged against him.

Trump ally Sidney Powell pleaded guilty last year to reduced charges in a case in Georgia. Prosecutors alleged she conspired with others to access election equipment without authorization in Coffee County and hired a computer forensics firm to copy software and data from voting machines and computers.

Election security experts and computer scientists say an effort to access voting system software in several states and provide it to Trump allies poses “serious threats” ahead of this year’s presidential contest.

It is unknown if Peters — who has repeated false accusations that the 2020 presidential election in which Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden was a “planned fraud on a grand scale” — will testify during the nearly two-week trial in the city of Grand Junction.

But two of her closest colleagues are expected to take the stand and testify against her.

Peters’ chief deputy, Belinda Knisley, and the aide who was with her when the first computer image was taken, former elections manager Sandra Brown, both pleaded guilty under deals which require them to testify against Peters.

Judge Matthew Barrett has barred Peters from portraying herself as whistleblower during the trial and also ruled the defense cannot try to make the case about election integrity or Dominion, The Daily Sentinel reported.

The trial begins after several delays, Peters’ failed bid to become Colorado’s top elections official and her decision to change attorneys on the eve of a trial date in February.

Potential jurors are scheduled to be questioned Wednesday in the solidly Republican county near the Utah border, which Donald Trump won in the 2020 presidential election with nearly 63% of the vote. Opening statements in the trial could come later in the day.

Peters is charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one count of identity theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.

Prosecutors allege a second image of the elections computer was taken after it was upgraded. The next day, they say Peters mailed a package to the man who had taken the first image but who left before the second one could be completed. He has not been charged.

Peters’ case was the first instance amid the 2020 conspiracy theories in which a local election official was charged with a suspected security breach of voting systems. It heightened concerns nationally for the potential of insider threats, in which rogue election workers sympathetic to lies about the 2020 election might use their access to election equipment and the knowledge gained through the breaches to launch an attack from within.

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Christina Almeida Cassidy contributed to this report from Atlanta.