On Thursday, the Fruita Police Department issued an arrest warrant for Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters for allegedly violating the terms of her bond, as well as a protective order.
The bond violation is just the latest in a series of incidents in which Peters appears to be taunting authorities to do something about her repeated violation of state law. This time, the violation is related to an email that she sent to 62 Colorado county clerks requesting a hand recount of the June 28 GOP primary results for Colorado Secretary of State.
Peters sent one of those emails to her home county of Mesa — to the county director of elections Brandi Bantz — and per the conditions of her $25,000 bond and related protective order, she isn’t supposed to have any contact with anyone in the county clerk’s office. Bantz notified law enforcement and the District Attorney’s office.
According to the arrest documents, the email was sent from Peters’ Mesa County email address and stated that as a candidate, Peters was going forward with a request for a hand recount in “selected counties.”
There are 64 counties in Colorado. The Colorado County Clerks Association confirmed to Colorado Politics that only two counties — Fremont and Weld — did not get that hand recount request.
As expected, with major leads in the primary vote count for her opponent (she lost the Republican primary to former Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Pam Anderson by 14 percentage points) Secretary of State Jena Griswold rejected the recount request for two reasons. First, under rules adopted by Griswold’s Republican predecessor, recounts have to be conducted using the same method as the original count — in these cases, using electronic tabulation equipment. But Peters wasn’t willing to pay for it.
It’s been less than a week since Peters appeared in Mesa County court for violating the terms of her bond, by going to Las Vegas without notifying the court for permission. She got off with a warning, but this latest incident has apparently tried the patience of the court beyond their tolerance.
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