Judge bars Tina Peters from running Mesa County elections

MESA COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO)-- Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters is still in the race to run Colorado's elections, but she won't be able to run the elections in her own county.

Peters, who faces ten criminal counts for allegedly tampering with election equipment in an effort to expose what she believed were widespread voting machine discrepancies, has now been barred from overseeing Mesa County's elections by a judge.

A court granted Secretary of State Jena Griswold's request to appoint Brandi Bantz as the designated election official in Peters' place.

Despite her charges, Peters is still in the running to be the Republican candidate for Colorado Secretary of State in the 2022 election. Peters received 60.57% of the vote at the party's assembly in March. In the June primary race, Peters will be up against Mike O’Donnell, a Yuma County candidate who earned 39.4% of the vote at the assembly, and Pam Anderson, a more moderate candidate who had enough petitions to land on the primary ballot. Of the three, only Anderson denies widespread voter fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 November election.

In response to the judge's ruling, Secretary of State Jena Griswold issued a statement saying, "The Court’s decision today bars Peters from further threatening the integrity of Mesa’s elections and ensures Mesa County residents have the secure and accessible elections they deserve."

After Peters was charged, Griswold worked with legislators on Senate Bill 22-153, which would prohibit clerks with election-related convicitions from running elections. That bill passed through the state legislature Tuesday night.