[15] The recall effort failed by approximately 1,200 signatures to reach the 12,129 required for the question to appear on the ballot in the November 3, 2020, general election.
[16] On November 8, 2021, the Colorado Secretary of State filed a lawsuit against Peters over her fundraising efforts and failure to report contributions and expenses for nearly three years.
[18][19] On February 14, 2022, she dropped her candidacy to run in the Republican primary election for Colorado Secretary of State, which concluded on June 28, 2022.
[21][23] In late July 2022, Peters paid the $256,000 required for the state to conduct a manual recount of votes cast in the primary election.
[7] In 2024, Peters was convicted in Colorado's 21st judicial district on felony charges relating to this unauthorized access and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
[35] In August 2021, Ron Watkins, conspiracy theorist and site administrator of the imageboard website 8kun, published computer files associated with the Mesa County election system, including "forensic images of Mesa County's voting machines along with video of [a software] update and partially blurred passwords" on a Telegram channel.
The order stated: "The posted images depict the BIOS passwords specific to the individual hardware stations of Mesa County's voting system.
[41] During the conference, Ron Watkins presented via livestream the computer files associated with the Mesa County election system he had shared on Telegram previously.
Griswold appointed her Republican predecessor, former Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams, as the Designated Election Official.
[38] On August 19, 2021, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell told Vice News in an interview that Peters was "holed up" in a safe house for her protection.
[48] The commissioners extended the service agreement for eight years (to 2029) and purchased a "Dominion Ballot Audit Review" for $3,300 per election, for a total cost of $825,281.
The agreement with Dominion included a promise that the company would not file a civil lawsuit against the county over defamatory remarks allegedly made by Peters.
[52] On August 23, 2021, Mesa County Human Resources Director Brenda Moore suspended Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley with pay due to accusations of unprofessional behavior and hostile work environment.
[53][60] On the evening of November 16, 2021, law enforcement authorities executed search warrants on the homes of Peters, Sherronna Bishop, and two others as part of the criminal investigation.
[68] Knisley was indicted alongside Peters, on six counts: attempt to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, violation of duty, and failure to comply with the requirements of the Secretary of State.
[65] Despite having acknowledged in earlier court appearances that a non-employee had been present,[13] she claimed that Gerald Wood had perjured himself on the stand when he denied being at the unauthorized breach.
[71][72] In April 2022, at an appearance with Peters, Lindell disclosed having personally donated an amount in the $200,000 to $800,000 range to her legal defense fund and campaign.
[76][77] In July 2022, a warrant was issued for Peters' arrest after she traveled out of state without the required court permission to appear at another Lindell event in Las Vegas.
[80] County Elections Manager Sandra Brown also turned herself in for arrest on July 11, 2022, on an affidavit naming her in a conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and attempt to influence a public servant.
[85] On August 7, 2022, Peters pled not guilty to all charges related to the alleged election machine tampering, and a trial was set for March 2023.
[86] On August 20, 2022, Peters and Sherronna Bishop appeared in a documentary released by Mike Lindell titled "[S]election Code".
[87][88][89] On August 25, 2022, Knisley pled guilty to three misdemeanor counts of trespass, official misconduct, and violation of duty, having cut a plea deal with prosecutors to keep her out of prison in exchange for testifying against Peters and others in the case.
Court documents say Knisley admitted she knew about and participated in a "scheme with Tina Peters and other identified people to deceive public servants from both the Colorado Secretary of State's Office and Mesa County.
"[90] The document continues to state, "This scheme, which was significantly directed by Tina Peters, ultimately permitted an unauthorized individual to gain access to secure areas inside the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder's Office so that this person — fraudulently held out to be improperly titled as Gerald Wood, but who was later identified to actually be Conan Hayes — could participate in Mesa County's trusted build with Tina Peters and Sandra Brown.
"[91] On November 30, 2022, Sandra Brown pled guilty to attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, and official misconduct, a misdemeanor, as part of a plea agreement that required her to testify against Tina Peters and her performance on the witness stand would play a factor in her eventual sentencing.
Brown's deal would allow her felony conviction of attempting to influence a public servant to be expunged after two years if she complies with the conditions set by Judge Barrett.
[106][107] Then, the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Neil Gorsuch denied Peters' application for an injunction to dismiss or halt a criminal trial against her.
Peters was convicted in August 2024 on seven of ten charges of engaging in a security breach to advance a false conspiracy theory of election fraud.
[7][110] On the day after her conviction, she appeared on the Steve Bannon War Room podcast to insist she would continue to pursue her allegations, referring to a debunked theory originating from former Michigan politician Patrick Colbeck and amplified on Twitter by Rasmussen Reports alleging Dominion engineers based in Serbia could change votes over the internet.
Their son, Remington J. Peters, a combat veteran serving as a US Navy SEAL, died in 2017 at age 27 in a parachute accident performing at an air show in New York City.