Colorado County Clerk Indicted in Voting Safety Breach Investigation

Tina Peters, a county clerk operating as a Republican for secretary of state of Colorado, was indicted Tuesday night on 10 felony counts associated to allegations that she tampered with election gear after the 2020 election.

The indictment, which the district legal professional of Mesa County, Colo., introduced on Wednesday, is related to Ms. Peters’s work as a prime county election administrator, a job through which she promoted former President Donald J. Trump’s false claims that the election had been stolen.

A grand jury indicted Ms. Peters on each felony and misdemeanor expenses, together with of making an attempt to affect a public servant, felony impersonation, conspiracy to commit felony impersonation, id theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of responsibility and failing to adjust to the secretary of state. Neither Ms. Peters’s marketing campaign nor her lawyer instantly responded to requests for remark.

The grand jury additionally indicted Belinda Knisley, Ms. Peters’s deputy, on six counts. A lawyer for Ms. Knisley didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Ms. Peters’s case was a outstanding instance of how Republican-led evaluations of the 2020 vote rely have prompted election-security threats involving the integrity of voting machines, software program and different gear that make up the nation’s election infrastructure. And in operating for secretary of state, Ms. Peters has been an instance of the openly partisan candidates who declare that Mr. Trump gained the election and who’re reworking races across the nation for the once-little-known workplace.

In Could 2021, the authorities say, Ms. Peters entered a safe space of a warehouse the place voting machines had been saved, and copied exhausting drives and election-management software program from the machines. She can be accused of recording a voting machine upkeep process.

Then, in August, a conservative web site revealed passwords for Mesa County election machines. The indictment connects Ms. Peters’s and Ms. Knisley’s actions to the leak of the passwords.

Ms. Peters is operating for secretary of state in opposition to the incumbent, Jena Griswold, who’s a Democrat.

Reid J. Epstein contributed reporting.