Mesa County is Still Reeling From Election-Denying County Clerk Tina Peters

By Khaya Himmelman

Originally Published: June 11, 2024 11:55 a.m.

It's been nearly four years since Tina Peters, the elections administrator of Mesa County, Colorado, went rogue, allegedly breaching her office's own equipment in a bid to investigate Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election. She was indicted on state charges in 2022.

Now, as the 2024 election approaches, the county election office she once oversaw is still reeling from her legacy, while dealing with the ideas her allies continue to spread.

"We continue to fight disinformation and misinformation, mainly spread by Tina Peters as she tries to defend herself," Sheila Reiner, a former Mesa County county clerk and recorder and the current county treasurer, told TPM. "It was heartbreaking and very frustrating to watch her time and time again simply lie about the process."

Peters' alleged misdeeds not only shook voter confidence, they also gave the county a reputation for being a hotbed of conspiracy theorizing that extended into the voting infrastructure itself.

Peters, who has now become the de facto face of the Stop the Steal movement in Colorado, allegedly gave an unauthorized individual access to the county's voting machines; data from those machines was then leaked online. She went on to become a cause célèbre among those who baselessly insist the 2020 election was stolen and a close ally of Mike Lindell. She is currently awaiting trial, which is set for later this summer.

The work for Mesa County election officials in advance of the upcoming presidential election is working to regain public's trust that another Peters-like insider won't interfere in the county's election; and instituting measures to increase transparency to keep conspiracy theories from spiraling out of control.

"I had been in Mesa County elections for over 20 years at that point, and it was just like watching someone destroy our reputation," Reiner, the former clerk, said. "And even though what she did only happened to some equipment, the entire process is now tainted."

In August 2021, Reiner was appointed by the Secretary of State's office to oversee the county elections while Peters was under investigation, so like Gross, Reiner too was directly responsible for repairing the damage done by Peters.

Now, the county is focused on implementing new security policies and measures to prevent another Peters from ever breaching the county's election system. Since Peters left office, the county has improved its security camera system. Access to the county's vote-counting facility (which includes any room where votes are tabulated) is now only possible via badge, and team members can only enter the pre-processing room and the tabulation room — rooms which both house counted ballots, in teams of two.

Reiner, who said that watching the Peters episode play out took an emotional toll on her, expressed optimism that the majority of the county's voters understand that their elections are safe and secure. But, she said, she is still concerned about those constituents who are open to conspiracy theories, like those Peters' allies continue to spread, going into 2024.

"That smaller percentage — I just really worry about them. It doesn't feel good to not trust," she said. "The more we can do to help, the better."

Reiner estimates that that "smaller percentage" is probably a few hundred people, which, although small compared to the county's population of close to 160,000 people, is still concerning, especially because the county has now seen the outsized influence of a single bad actor.

As part of an effort to tamp down on conspiratorial thinking, the county has even made the security footage available to the public. "If somebody wants to watch hours of footage at the ballot box, they can," said Bobbie Gross, the Mesa County clerk and recorder who was elected to replace Peters in 2022.

Multiple times a year, Mesa County holds open houses, where voters can see the voting equipment, ask questions, and learn about certain election processes like signature verification.

"We understand that the best way to create trust in our election system is to make them as transparent as possible," said Gross, a Republican.

Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, who described Gross as a "breath of fresh air," said that Gross's challenge is really about rebuilding trust, not just amongst voters, but also in an office that under Peters was a "poisonous environment."

He described Peters and what he calls, more generally, the "Tina debacle" as a "shock to the system," leading county clerks statewide to adopt a zero-trust security posture, noting that they had probably been naive in thinking that someone in a position like the one Peters was in would both understand the job and do it well.

So, now, he said, the work is not only about transparency to help voters, but also about creating a culture where workers report concerns when they see them.

"What you have Bobbie getting back to was just, okay, rebuilding culture and rebuilding faith just by doing what you're supposed to do on a day-to-day basis and being extremely competent in doing so," he said.

And, although Mesa County election officials have implemented new security measures to guard post-Peters, dangerous election misinformation remains as much a concern as it was four years ago in Colorado — as it is for election offices across the country.

"We still have the same bad actors spreading the same garbage that they always have," Crane said. "But these bad actors — I call it the traveling clown show — they're still going around, especially in these smaller communities, trying to scare people out of using our voting system."