Disputed Fact
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters preserved forensic images of the pre-trusted-build Dominion Election Management System server before a state-mandated update deleted 28,989 files, including 695 legally mandated log files. USC 52 Section 20701 requires the preservation of ALL election records for a period of not less than 22 months following an election.
Peters was subsequently prosecuted under Colorado state law for this preservation act. Whether the prosecution was legitimate enforcement or coordinated suppression of the individual most capable of demonstrating the forensic significance of the deleted records – and whose custody of the images was the sole surviving evidence of the pre-deletion state – is a question requiring independent investigation. The prosecution had the practical effect of vilifying the most credentialed custodian of primary forensic evidence from the public evidentiary record.
Citations
Peters was convicted by a jury in Mesa County on Aug. 12, 2024, of 4 felonies and 3 misdemeanors related to the unauthorized imaging of the election management system server. The Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction on Apr. 2, 2026. See ABC News: Court overturns prison sentence of Tina Peters (Apr. 2, 2026).
Peters preserved forensic images documenting the state of the Dominion Election Management System server before and after the trusted build process, during which the state reported the build “sanitizes” a voting system by removing all prior data. Peters’ act of preservation was classified as a security breach. See Colorado Sun: Tina Peters verdict (Aug. 12, 2024).