Fox in the hen house
How can you fix a problem when the problem is in charge? Think of the adage about foxes in the hen house, and you get what it means to have Tina Peters in charge of elections in Mesa County, Colorado. Peters is an unashamed MAGA supporter. She recently gave a speech at My Pillow guy’s “Cyber Symposium,” which was little more than a lie fest. Lindell is certifiable, and anyone who teams up with him must be just as crazy. Many believe that Peters was able to negatively impact the 2020 election in Mesa County, and Daily Beast gave a rundown of her activities.
During her speech at the symposium, Peters claimed that she “looked at it objectively” and that she saw “discrepancies” that she “cannot deny.” She said nothing about what those “discrepancies” might be. Peters’ nefarious activities began following her election to office, when she left 574 ballots outside her office in an unattended drop box, which means anyone could have tampered with them. That did not matter, since Peters never counted them, depriving those voters of their right to vote.
The Colorado Secretary of State appointed Patti Inscho, a Democrat with a wealth of election experience, to serve as a helper to Peters. Peters fired Inscho two months later. In frustration, Amanda Polson, an elections director under the previous election clerk, began a recall effort of Peters, hoping to get her out of office prior to the 2020 elections. To bolster the campaign, Polson outlined Peters failures of the ignored ballots and the fact that Peters had an incredibly high staff turnover, dubious expenses—including $3,000 for meals—and her refusal to oversee two local elections. That refusal ended up costing those towns three times the normal cost.
The recall effort was, unfortunately, not successful, and Peters was allowed to oversee the 2020 election, which included the installation of a ballot drop box that was defective and caused completed ballots to be strewn across a parking lot. In what was no surprise, Trump carried Mesa County, though he lost Colorado, which only fueled Peters’ fire. She was suspected of turning off security cameras installed to monitor voting machines and was involved in the breach of those same machines, with the data ending up on a conspiracy-theory website, but Peters was not done. Lindell flew her in his private jet to his “symposium,” though Peters had already purchased an American Airlines ticket with taxpayer money, which she listed in her expense report as a “conference.”
According to DB, Peters is now in hiding in a safe house provided by none other than Lindell. The breach in which Peters was involved is being investigated by local, state, and federal authorities. Peters did everything in her power to help Donald Trump win the election, to no avail. Now, should she surface, she will be in serious trouble. Who knows how many of these kinds of people are involved in elections across the country? Though the 2020 election went through with the correct result, how can we ensure there will be no cheating election officials in 2022 and beyond?
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years