A Colorado county clerk accused of permitting an unauthorized particular person to interrupt into her county’s election system in search of proof of the conspiracy theories spun by former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to all fees in the case on Wednesday.
Tina Peters entered her plea in Grand Junction earlier than Judge Matthew Barrett, who scheduled a trial for her in March.
Peters is charged with three counts of trying to affect a public servant, legal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit legal impersonation, one rely of identification theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of obligation and failing to adjust to the secretary of state.
Thomas Peipert/AP
Peters denies she did something unlawful and contends the costs are politically motivated. She has issued experiences purporting to indicate suspicious exercise inside voting programs, however these have been debunked by varied officers and consultants.
Last month, Peters’ former chief deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley, pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in reference to the case beneath a deal that requires her to testify in opposition to Peters. She was sentenced to 2 years of unsupervised probation. A 3rd worker from Peters’ workplace has additionally been charged in the scheme.
Prosecutors alleged that Knisley labored to get a safety badge for a person Peters stated she was hiring in the clerk’s workplace. Peters then allegedly used it to permit one other, unauthorized particular person contained in the room to make a replica of the election tools laborious drive throughout an replace to election tools in May 2021. That different particular person has not been charged.
A choose prohibited Peters from overseeing final yr’s and this yr’s elections in Mesa County, a western area of the state that’s largely rural and closely Republican. Trump misplaced Colorado in 2020 however received nearly all of the vote in this county.
Peters misplaced her bid to change into Colorado’s high elections official in June — she sought to change into the Republican candidate to problem Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold in November’s election. Peters alleged fraud in the first however a recount she paid for confirmed that she misplaced.
On Tuesday, a choose threw out her lawsuit difficult the best way the recount was carried out, saying she waited till after the recount was completed to ask for it to be stopped so he did not have the authority to contemplate it.
Her lawyer in the case, David Wilson, stated some recount observers reported that election machines have been examined with take a look at ballots as a substitute of precise ballots solid by voters earlier than they have been used to conduct the recount. According to the secretary of state’s workplace, its election guidelines require scanning machines to be examined with a set of take a look at ballots that comprise each potential configuration of poll marking, which it says is essentially the most dependable approach to ensure the machines are working appropriately.
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