Far-right election official in prison for compromising voting machines pleads for release

Tina Peters, a former Mesa County, Colorado, clerk, petitioned a federal magistrate on Tuesday, asking to be granted bond while appealing her conviction at the state level for leaking sensitive voting-machine data.

According to a report by Courthouse News Service published Tuesday, Chief Magistrate Judge Scott Varholak noted that, “I don’t think petitioner has cited a single case in the history of the United States where a federal court granted an appeal bond in a state case,” and said no federal court has ever released an inmate awaiting a state appeal, questioning the logistics of doing so.

Peters, known for her alignment with election deniers like MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Ron Watkins — figures in the QAnon‑adjacent movement who were active during President Donald Trump's first term — was sentenced to nine years in prison last October after a jury convicted her on four felony and three misdemeanor charges tied to her 2021 voting‑machine breach.

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A courtroom packed with her right‑wing supporters nodded vigorously as Peters was praised a “hero” who “helped save America,” a characterization Ticktin also embraced, according to the Guardian.

Peters claims her actions were driven by election‑fraud concerns. She once disabled security cameras and arranged for hard‑drive images to be copied during a Dominion system update, believing she was preserving evidence.

Meanwhile, her attorney, Peter Ticktin, claimed in the petition filed Tuesday that Peters was living in grim conditions in custody: “she is living among murderers and bunking on a hard, thin mattress.” He urged that she be released on bail, contending, “If there’s ever been a case where somebody should be released on bail, this is it.”

In March, Trump issued a statement in Petes' support on his Truth Social platform. “Tina is an innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment," he wrote.

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Trump urged the U.S. Department of Justice to “take all necessary action to help secure the release of former Mesa county clerk Tina Peters,” labeling her a hostage “being held in a Colorado prison by the Democrats, for political reasons.”

He concluded emphatically with: “FREE TINA PETERS, NOW!”

According to the Courthouse News Service report, senior Assistant Attorney General Lisa Michaels argued that the appropriate course is to refer the question of bond back to the state courts for reconsideration. She also urged that Peters’ federal petition be dismissed entirely.

Michaels added: “This court must wait until the state has an opportunity to rule,” she said. “We’re not in the usual post‑conviction place where we know it’s already been resolved.”

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