This letter blasting Tina Peters and claiming our elections in Colorado are secure and accurate was widely distributed to Colorado citizens
An open call to the Colorado GOP from current and former Republican election officials
It’s with great dismay that we read the Colorado Republican Party leadership’s recent call to all Colorado Republicans to support disgraced former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters. As current and former Republican election officials, your decision to support an individual who has actively worked to undermine our elections statewide is a slap in the face and an affront to each of us who have worked to become experts in election administration and to build and sustain secure elections in Colorado over many decades.
Tina Peters now faces criminal charges in Mesa County in a trial that is scheduled to begin this month. She is charged with criminal impersonation, identity theft, and attempting to influence a public officer. She claims to have committed these acts because she believed she was proving election fraud. To be clear, there was no fraud in Mesa County elections. She led a willful breach of her voting system. Peters did not uncover any fraud or threats to Mesa County elections. In the end, she herself was the threat to election integrity in the county. Her actions made elections less secure and more susceptible to nefarious activity. She has since embarked on a national campaign to discredit our elections processes, the same processes she never bothered to understand when she served as a county clerk. She has also profited financially and has become quite famous while trying to deflect blame, putting her former staff and others in harm’s way and saddling Mesa County taxpayers with more than one million dollars in expenses to unnecessarily recount election results and replace the voting systems she compromised.
As former and current Republican election officials, we have dedicated much time to understanding federal and state election laws and becoming experts in election processes. We have and will successfully run hundreds of elections at the local, county and state levels; and, in fact, correctly carried out the elections that put many of the current Colorado State Republican Party leaders in office. Facts matter in this and every debate. There have been many years of imaginative accusations, with no basis in truth and using Tina Peters as the poster child. It is an affront to honest election administrators across the nation and especially in Colorado.
We expect better from the leadership of the Colorado Republican Party, a party in which we have served loyally for years. We are dedicated public servants who take our sacred responsibility and sworn oaths with absolute seriousness. We know many of you at the county and precinct level know the truth and support the work honest election administrators do. We thank you for your continued support and commitment to the truth.
We want to state unequivocally, Tina Peters is not a hero. She is a sadly misguided individual who did not uphold her oath of office and her obligations to the community she served. We ask our fellow Colorado Republican Party members to support your local Republican Clerk and Recorders, who administer with integrity, an election system that serves our Constitution and every Coloradan casting a ballot.
Respectfully,
Hon. Mary Estill Buchanan, former Colorado Secretary of State
Hon. Mike Coffman, Aurora Mayor and former Colorado Secretary of State
Hon. Donetta Davidson, former Colorado Secretary of State, former Arapahoe and Bent County Clerk
Hon. Gigi Dennis, former Colorado Secretary of State
Hon. Wayne Williams, former Colorado Secretary of State and former El Paso County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Pam Anderson, former Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Karrie Apple, Las Animas County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Kristy Archulta, Archuleta County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Chuck Broerman, former El Paso County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Kelley Camper, Custer County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Brenda Corbett, Clear Creek County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Matt Crane, former Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Sheri Davis, Douglas County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Scott Doyle, former Larimer County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Nancy Doty, former Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Justin Grantham, Fremont County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Debra Green, former Park County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Hayle Johnson, Jackson County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Carly Koppes, Weld County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Carole Murray, former Colorado state representative and former Douglas County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Angela Myers, former Larimer County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Pam Phipps, former Clear Creek County and Recorder
Hon. Stan Martin, former Adams County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Steve Moreno, former Weld County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Tammy Raschke, former Moffat County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Sheila Reiner, former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Janice Rich, Colorado State Senator and former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Sara Rosene, former Grand County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Steve Schlieker, El Paso County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Lyn Scott, Otero County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Teri Stephenson, Delta County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Kevin Strauch, Morgan County Clerk and Recorder
Hon. Garland Wahl, former Washington County Clerk and Recorder
