DENVER — Colorado Republicans have rejected an indicted county clerk as their nominee for secretary of state, choosing a former local official who ran on a platform of taking politics out of running elections.
In spurning Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, the bulk of Republican primary voters appeared to reject the conspiracy theories and false claims that have spread among conservatives since the November 2020 presidential election.
Over the last year, Peters has appeared regularly with prominent allies of former President Donald Trump, who claims without evidence that the election was stolen from him.
The win by Pam Anderson, a former county clerk and past head of the state clerks’ association, sets up a November match-up with current Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat seeking a second term who ran unopposed in Tuesday’s primary.
In recent months, Peters had issued various reports – discredited by officials and experts – that claim voting system tampering. The reports were based on an unauthorized copy of her county’s voting system, a security breach that led to her indictment. She has been charged with seven felony counts.
Peters has dismissed the charges as politically motivated, even though the Mesa County district attorney who convened the grand jury is a Republican.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud or conspiracy in the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to President Joe Biden.
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