ASPEN, Colo. (AP) – A rural Colorado official known as the state’s most prominent voter denialist turned himself in to authorities amid allegations he violated the terms of his release while awaiting trial on burglary charges. the electoral system of your county.
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters turned herself in to the Pitkin County Jail in Aspen Thursday night and was booked, said Parker Lathrop, the county’s deputy chief of operations.
She was released on bond later that evening, Lathrop said. Authorities say he had violated his bail conditions by contacting workers at the Mesa County election office.
An arrest warrant had been issued less than a week after Peters’ attorney convinced a judge not to return her to prison over allegations she improperly traveled out of state while waiting the trial
Peters has echoed former President Donald Trump’s false theories about the 2020 election. She and her chief deputy, Belinda Knisley, are charged with allowing a hard drive to be copied during an update of the electoral team in May 2021.
Peters and Knisley have denied wrongdoing and Peters has called the charges politically motivated.
A judge barred Peters from overseeing local elections last year and this year in Mesa County, a western region of the state that is largely rural and heavily Republican. Trump won it in the 2020 presidential election with nearly 63% of the vote. President Joe Biden won Colorado overall with 55.4% of the state’s vote.
Peters lost a bid for the Republican Party nomination for Colorado secretary of state last month.
After the Secretary of State’s office told him he wasn’t entitled to a manual recount under the law, Peters contacted dozens of county election offices to ask them to do theirs.
Authorities said that included Mesa County and that doing so was a violation of his release.