Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters returns to Mesa County

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - Thursday night a rally was held for the return of Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters.

The rally was held at the Appleton Christian Church. Present at the event was Sheronna Bishop, former top aide and campaign manager to Lauren Boebert, Cory Anderson, head of the local chapter of the Election Integrity Project in Mesa County, and Kevin McCarney, chairman of the Mesa County Republican Party.

“I’m so happy to be home, this is where my heart is and this is where we’re going to take back America. It’s places like Mesa County that can be the catalyst to take back our country and we need your help, and it starts today,” said Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters.

Peters continued, “Some powerful people don’t want us to look at the facts, in fact they are trying to remove me as the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder, just for doing my job. I’ve been working remotely because my attorney told me it’s not safe to come back yet, but I’ve been working hard to ensure the clerk and recorder office is an office of the people and an office for the people.”

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold recently stripped Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters of her election supervision authority, alleging the clerk compromised election systems. Griswold appointed Mesa County Treasurer Sheila Reiner to step into the position of clerk and recorder in the absence of Peters.

Peters vocalized her disagreement with Griswold saying, “Secretary of State, Jena Griswold has appointed a woman who is trying to recall me to oversee my office and is trying to prevent us from conducting audits. Ms. Griswold is trying to force me out despite the fact that I’ve cooperated with her, giving her every piece of information that she requested... She has the arrogance to try to completely remove me, a Mesa County elected official that she elected.”

Peters then asked for financial contributions to support her amongst the legal investigations facing her. “You elected me and now we need to stand together to take back our country. Not only do I need your support in getting to the bottom of voting irregularities, that you have presented to our office, but I need your support to get through these politically motivated legal challenges that have been leveled against me. I’m fighting back and I need you to too.”

We spoke to a Mesa County commissioner to get his reaction after clerk & recorder Tina Peters made an appearance in the county for the first time in awhile. Her appearance comes as the alleged election security breach investigation involving her is still ongoing with the FBI & district attorney.

“Why those secret passwords were stolen, well Tina was there,” said commissioner Scott McInnis. “She has a lot of explaining to do. So I’m glad she’s back in town to explain some of these actions.”

During the rally last night, Tina Peters told the crowd she was happy to be home and quote, “Some powerful people are trying to remove me as the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder, just for doing my job. I’ve been working remotely because my attorney told me it’s not safe to come back yet, but I’ve been working hard to ensure the clerk and recorder office is an office of the people and an office for the people.”

However, commissioner Scott McInnis told us there is no evidence she has been working remotely until about a week ago. he says other members have had to take on her job responsibilities in her absence. Even though she was removed from her election duties, she still had a clerk’s office to manage.

“Tina went into hiding in early August,” said commissioner McInnis. “We’ve had very little communication with her, almost zero until the last 4-5 days. We have about 1200 employees who work for Mesa County. No other employee for Mesa County has ever gone into hiding. No other employee in Mesa County has just left their job & responsibilities. Now in the last 5 days the clerk has done some communication. But frankly, she left town, by her words went into hiding, dumped this election on the 3 commissioners who have zero experience in running an election.”

The commissioner also told us they have nothing to do with the criminal investigation & allegations involving Tina Peters.

As far as the election, Commissioner McInnis told us they are going above & beyond to assure security & validity.

“We have 4 things we’re doing to make sure this election is as secure as an election can get,” said commissioner McInnis. “We’re going overboard on it.”

They will be using 4 separate methods. The ballots will go through the new Dominion machines, they’ll also be run through Clear Ballot machines, a hand count will be done, & they’ve also ordered a monitor so any citizen can audit themselves.

We did reach out to Tina Peters today to see if she would talk to us, but we haven’t heard back. She had told us back in August that she was still working every day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. serving the people of Mesa County. At that time, she had told she was working remotely because of threats and attempts on her well being.

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