Former Colorado clerk was shocked after computer images were shared online, employee testifies

An employee of former Colorado clerk Tina Peters who says she was present when her boss allowed an outsider posing as a county employee to breach her voting system's computer testified Wednesday that Peters was shocked when images from the computer appeared online.

In the summer of 2021, former elections manager Sandra Brown said Peters called her after seeing the photos and videos she took of the Dominion Voting Systems' hard drive and said, “I don’t know what to do," using an obscenity her distress over the possible consequences. Soon after that, as authorities began investigating what had happened, Peters and her attorney advised Brown and another employee to buy disposable cellphones known as burner phones so their conversations with her and lawyers could not be discovered by investigators and urged them not to talk to law enforcement, Brown said.

After Brown was indicted and turned herself in, Peters came to visit her at jail the same day, she said.

“She came in and she said, ‘I love you, you have support, and don’t say anything,’” said Brown, who said Peters also gave her the number of an attorney who could represent her in court for her bail hearing. Brown eventually got another attorney and pleaded guilty under a plea deal that required her to testify against Peters.

Peters’ attorneys argue she only wanted to preserve election data before the system got a software update and did not want that information shared with the world. They say she was acting under her authority as clerk and did not break any laws.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, have portrayed Peters as someone who had become “fixated” on voting problems after becoming involved with activists who had questioned the accuracy of the 2020 presidential election