Full Breakdown
Alleged Election Subversion Scheme Involving Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters
5/23/2026, 12:09:38 AM
Alleged Tampering with Dominion Voting Machines
From 2019-2023, Tina Peters served as Mesa County clerk and recorder in Colorado, overseeing local election functions. After the 2020 presidential election, she embraced the claim that Dominion voting machines had rigged the result for President Joe Biden. In May 2021, she gave a colleague’s security badge to Conan Hayes, a former pro surfer posing as a technician, who accessed a Dominion machine, copied its hard drive before and after a software update, and did so while Peters disabled the security cameras. The duplicated data were later used in materials circulated by Mike “MyPillow” Lindell.
Background: Election Denial Context
The 2020 election generated widespread allegations that Dominion systems were compromised, prompting a national movement of officials and activists to challenge certified outcomes. Within this climate, local election administrators became targets for attempts to undermine or overturn results.
Key Figures
- Tina Peters – Mesa County clerk (2019-2023).
- Conan Hayes – Former pro surfer who performed the alleged machine access.
- Mike “MyPillow” Lindell – Prominent election-fraud promoter who repackaged the hard-drive data.
- Nonprofit watchdog – Organization that tracks election deniers and published the “Threats to Democracy” tracker.
Data & Statistics
The watchdog’s tracker listed nearly 300 public officials—including canvassers, clerks, legislators, and attorneys general—who had, in some capacity, attempted to overturn the 2020 election results.
Why It Matters
Unauthorized access to voting-machine hardware threatens confidence in election security and may prompt legal scrutiny, policy reforms, and heightened debate over election-integrity safeguards.
Criticism from Election Integrity Monitors
The nonprofit watchdog characterized Peters’ conduct as “shady to very illegal,” noting the deliberate disabling of surveillance equipment and facilitation of external actors’ access to election technology.
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
No official statements from Mesa County, Colorado state authorities, or law-enforcement agencies are provided in the source, leaving verification of the alleged actions and any ongoing investigations unclear.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Peters’s scheme runs the gamut from shady to very illegal, with some Hollywood espionage sprinkled in.” — New Republic article
- “In May 2021, she took a colleague’s security badge and gave it to Conan Hayes, a former pro surfer who disguised himself as a computer “nerd” to gain access to a Dominion machine, then copied its hard drive both before and after updating its software.” — New Republic article
- “) That hard-drive data was then repackaged by Mike “MyPillow” Lindell to further push the aforementioned conspiracy theory.” — New Republic article
